Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the session. I want to stick with the issue of accountability. The apparent lack of accountability across senior levels within the public service and the Civil Service is something that drives the public mad. We see on a regular basis that there are rarely consequences involved when things go wrong for the senior people who may not have been doing their job properly or who may have failed in their responsibilities. I make those points in a general sense; I am not talking about UHL. It is a major issue. It is particularly acute within the health service.

This issue was discussed at some length during the deliberations of the committee that came up with the Sláintecare plan. A very strong recommendation within Sláintecare was that there needed to be legislation to provide for accountability at administrative and clinical level within the health service. That was endorsed right across the board by all parties involved in that committee.

It is quite regrettable that this Government or that which preceded it did not move to introduce such legislation. I recall the first meeting of this committee that Mr. Bernard Gloster attended after being appointed. I put that question to him in respect of the regional executive officers and his response was that while the Government was not planning legislation, it was his view that the contracts being awarded were sufficiently strong. That is yet to be tested. I look forward to hearing further on that from Mr. Gloster at a later date. It is very regrettable that the Government failed to follow through on that recommendation. That leaves us in all kinds of complicated circumstances in different Departments and State agencies in the context of establishing accountability and people being seen to face the consequences when things go wrong. I do not know if the Minister wants to respond to the question about the failure to legislate for accountability.