Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Part of the reason for Mr. O'Brien being in attendance at the committee today is the issue of open disclosure, which is on the committee's work programme. We were considering it in a very cold way because we are looking at the contingent liabilities. However, we are examining those because they show the culture in an organisation. What we are being told about open disclosure and what is happening in practice are very different. According to the document provided by Mr. O'Brien, in January or February approximately 20,000 of the 140,000 HSE staff had been trained in open disclosure. Not all staff will directly impact on patients because there are many ancillary staff and sections 38 and 39 organisations and so on. Do we have open disclosure or not? What is Mr. O'Brien's viewpoint on voluntary, as opposed to mandatory, open disclosure?