Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 January 2016

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

10:00 am

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, too, acknowledge the Chairman's work and that of Deputy Deasy in this regard. The correspondence circulated to us this morning makes for very stark reading. There is no margin of misunderstanding. There was no apology. Perhaps there was no intention of an apology, bar for the work done by Deputy Deasy and yourself, Chairman.

I agree with other members of the committee in respect of calling the HSE to account for this to establish exactly who, for instance, cleared the statement or the incorrect misleading position adopted by the HSE. Whose idea was that? I would like to know that. The committee needs to know that.

I am troubled also by the second strand of this which is a clear understanding on the part of the whistleblowers, who are acting in the best interests of a vulnerable person, that they regard the manner in which they were treated as a concerted effort to discredit them and silence them. This, too, needs to be answered and explained. It reflects extremely badly on the HSE, its governance and attitude, and the culture of the organisation.

We are obviously coming to the end of the Dáil term. We do not know if we will meet again next week. I know there is a meeting scheduled by the clerk to the committee, ever the optimist. Although time is short, could we move a little bit more speedily on this matter? Deputy Costello referred to an incoming committee in the next Dáil. Could we at least explore the options of having the HSE come before us before the Dáil is dissolved? I appreciate that might not be possible but I think the clerk and the Chairman should examine all options on that because the correspondence this morning is extremely alarming. We would not be doing our job as a committee if we were to let it lie.

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