Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To be helpful to the Minister, I will refer to correspondence received from senior officials. The relevant date is 13 November 2017. The correspondence states the Department is of the view that the following are mechanisms to progress matters to ensure the matters raised are addressed in respect of the board and principal people within it. The first mechanism is a response to the authors of the report pointing to the existence of concerns about fair procedures and suggesting a further process of engagement with staff and management at Oberstown to ensure persons criticised in the report have been fairly heard. The alternative mechanism would involve a submission by the board and management of the Oberstown campus on behalf of the persons criticised in the report to be disclosed to HIQA and the Oireachtas joint committee, with the report. The officials sought to arrange a meeting between the relevant people and the Department to discuss the matter since the Minister was due to appear before the Oireachtas joint committee on 22 November. As I recall, the issues did not arise at that meeting, but the Minister did anticipate that they would arise. They are arising now.

On what we are strident - I think the Minister is seeing unity across the members of the committee in that regard - is the fact that I would not be doing my job if I left here with questions on my mind about the content of a report from eminent persons such as Professor Goldson and Professor Hardwick. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but is there some cover-up of practices at the Oberstown centre about which we need to hear in the public interest? Are people being protected unduly? The conflict I have in my mind is that I must always take steps to protect the good name of individuals and due process, but there is also the matter of the public interest. Notwithstanding the facts that the recommendations are being implemented, that HIQA is now in Oberstown and that there is a clear pathway in the improvements being made, we still have the sword of Damocles of the report hanging over our heads as an Oireachtas committee and I do not believe we will be satisfied until we receive clearer answers on its publication. I do not believe the public will be satisfied until it is published.