Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am also conscious of time as I may have to leave the meeting a little early.

I welcome Ms Murphy's comment that people are good and decent, want to do the right thing and need to be supported to do so. The question for us is whether they need to be compelled to do the right thing. In such a circumstance, what must we do to ensure they feel fully supported? As Ms Murphy acknowledged, there are people in the health service who want to do the right thing but may not feel they should have to answer for the system.

When they appeared before the joint committee, officials from the Department of Health expressed a fear that mandatory open disclosure would lead to a box-ticking exercise. I am interested in hearing the views of the witnesses, including those from the State Claims Agency, on that matter.

I congratulate Mark and Róisín Molloy on their much deserved award. I am sure they are very proud.

With regard to the training that was provided as part of the pilot scheme, was protected time given to that training and what number of staff were trained? Mr. Molloy referred to the legal accountability framework and the need for health care professionals to have a legal accountability framework. It could be argued that there are some provisions in place already, with some professionals having outside regulatory bodies while others do not. Is it Mr. Molloy's view that a legal accountability framework should cover all persons in hospitals or should it be confined to health professionals, namely, doctors and nurses? Should it extend to administrators, those who run the canteen and hospital cleaners? Should it be in place for everybody?

I thank the delegates for their attendance and the evidence they have given.