Mr. Jim Breslin:

Dr. Henry, in response to Deputy MacSharry's points, talked about some of the specifics of the points the Chairman has just made. The first question was about what we learned from things going wrong in the blood service. The Finlay and Lindsay tribunals identified a range of specific quality control issues within the blood service. It was vitally important that we re-established confidence in the Irish blood service and a programme of work has been put in place to bring the service to a quality level that compares with international standards.

What the Chairman says, however, is correct. The consequences of what happened in the blood service were defining moments for the Irish health service. Internationally, all health services are dealing with the importance of prevention in achieving patient safety as the complexity of services has increased over the years. At both policy level and operationally within the HSE, we have tried to move that agenda forward. There is nobody saying our work is over and all of us are strong advocates for patient safety because we know the importance of it.

The actions that have been taken since then include the establishment of HIQA and the Mental Health Commission to put people who are not in the operating line or the hierarchical structure in to examine services and see how they are operating.