John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman was on radio last week and somebody in RTE asked whether the committee has a remit here. The Chairman replied that we did given that we looked at the value-for-money issues surrounding the commissioning of reports, but it was probably a fair question. In reality, when it comes right down to it, the Committee of Public Accounts probably should not be dealing with this; the Department should be. Ms Spillane should have dealt with this. We should not be dealing with this today. There is a theory that if it had been dealt with better in the Department of Health, a commission of investigation probably would not have been announced. That is a reasonable point. The reason Mr. Conor Dignam SC was commissioned to conduct a desktop review was because we raised this in this committee.

When it comes to constituents who came to me, I had to fight for the most basic care for some of those who were involved and who were subjected to the most horrendous rape.

We did that through what we do on a daily basis within this committee. I have to ask Ms Spillane a question. The Department of Health is absolutely pivotal in this with regard to its oversight of an organisation that has failed, and failed miserably. What was the Department doing while we were dealing with this matter? We have had Ms Spillane's boss, the Secretary General, in here. We discussed this and dealt with everything but, frankly, it led to nowhere. Ultimately, it has led to a commission of investigation because the Department of Health did not deal with this matter.