Annie Hoey (Labour)
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The allegations that were made on "RTÉ Investigates" were quite extraordinary. The public, either those who watched that programme or are watching this public session, will be struggling to marry how these allegations could have been made without any basis in truth, as Mr. Watt has said. He has said there was no basis for those allegations, that they were untrue and had no validity behind them.

People are really struggling to marry those two things and there is an enormous responsibility, if these allegations are untrue, to comprehensively prove so, because the reputational damage being done is immense. The reason this struck a chord is that no matter what way one slices this, there are, have been and continue to be vulnerable children who have been forced to take action against the State in order to get their basic educational needs met. Notwithstanding that the allegations are possibly not valid, in the words of Mr. Watt, there is a larger issue at stake that vulnerable families and children have been mucked about under the watch of the Department of Health.

Mr. Watt said this has been a long-standing practice and I know a couple of people have alluded as to whether that is still a correct practice. Would Mr. Watt say that is an ethical practice? I am not a lawyer and the law has to do what it has to do, but this struck a chord with people for a reason. One of the reasons is the ethics behind it. Is it an ethical thing to have done?

Mr. Watt has said these practices will continue to take place. He mentioned these cases often end in mediation. Surely, the answer should be that these cases end in the families and vulnerable children getting what they are entitled to, which is access to an education. We are talking about cases being outstanding and what is going to be done. Truly, based on the public response and the feeling in this, the answer should be that no one should have to do this in the first place.