Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about open disclosure for medical people. However, fundamentally the people in the organisational structure of the HSE are not bound unless they are a member of a medical organisation. Irrespective of the amount of talk we have about open disclosure, that is to do with the practices in medicine. What about open disclosure when it comes to people in management in the HSE? These people whose salaries are paid by the State are not doctors and therefore the Medical Council, the pharmacy regulator or whatever has no way of bringing them in. How is it proposed to make people in that structure accountable?

Following on from the national maternity strategy, we spoke a lot about the mastership model in this room. It seems clear to me that when the people in charge have no clinical experience and no clinical involvement in the provision of services in a hospital or an organisation, there is a deficit when it comes to being able to relay down to what happens in real life. How do we make people, who are not regulated by an external body, accountable?