Ms Angela Fitzgerald:

The Deputy's points are very well made. The principle of open disclosure is at the heart of the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023. I know the Deputy made an active contribution to the discussions on that legislation. Things will go wrong in health settings, as they do in other settings. What is essential is that when things go wrong we acknowledge it, work with the people affected and seek to address the issue. Other members asked about the benefits of the patient safety Act. One of the envisaged benefits of the legislation is that it will require hospitals, both in the public and the private sector, to report on serious events. Typically, they do but the Act provides an additional burden. In Ms Grogan's area, as chief inspector of social services, she currently does not have a role to investigate individual events but she will now have additional responsibilities. That central principle is at the heart of the Deputy's question, and HIQA fully agrees with it. The work of Mr. Egan and Ms Grogan seeks to establish that. There are current requirements of people to report and when Mr. Egan goes on site, for example, he will always look at the reporting of incidents and live incidents so that he can understand for himself what is going on. The principle of reporting is an important one and it is at the heart of safety. We agree with the Deputy.