Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know whether Mr. Watts's new job description includes dancing on the head of a pin, but if it does, he may be justified in his new salary increase because this is dancing on the head of a pin if ever I saw it. To quote directly from the correspondence, he states: "[T]he Department of Health has never gathered sensitive medical and educational information on children involved in court cases in the manner portrayed in the recent media reports." He goes on to state:

The Minister for Health is named from time to time as a defendant in cases taken against the State. These cases include those related to Special Educational Needs ("SEN"), many of which date back [some period of time] ... The Minister for Education and the Minister for Health are generally named as co-defendants in these cases and both Departments are jointly represented by the Chief State Solicitor’s Office ... It is in the public interest that State parties to litigation manage those proceedings as efficiently as possible. In pursuing a well-managed approach to litigation in the public interest, Government Departments regularly adopt a joint strategy in defending litigation.

I propose we write back to the Department of Health asking it to outline what exactly this joint strategy involves in the collation of information, what costs have been associated with this over the past ten years and which line of expenditure this falls into. Essentially, my proposal is to ask the original questions that were not answered in the response we received from Mr. Watt.