Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

When Mr. Aidan Brown addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, he said that since the beginning of the year all inspections teams comprised a nurse, a doctor and an environmental health officer. When I informed him that I was aware of at least one case in which an inspection team had an inspector but no doctor or nurse, he suddenly said that still happens in some parts of the country. In the space of a sentence it went from never happening to happening. Is €2 million enough to establish HIQA and the social services inspectorate or will we be left with piecemeal inspection of nursing homes? Apart from the fact that no legislation has been enacted in the last two years to protect health service patients, at the same committee a HSE official said the Minister had not signed off on the complaints procedure of the HSE as expected under Part 9 of the Health Act 2004 under which the HSE was established. Is that correct? Although an impression was given that it had been done, when we forced the issue, it appeared the Minister had not signed off on the complaints procedure provided for in Part 9.

Has the Minister met any of the senior HSE officials involved in the inspection of Leas Cross in recent years? Have the Minister and Ministers of State learned anything from this experience? This is important. They take information at face value without getting down into the trenches and finding out what is going on. When I accused the Minister and senior HSE officials of colluding in the continued barbarity at Leas Cross, there was not one denial. That is telling.

Is the Minister of State aware that senior HSE officials ask health professionals not to make their complaints about quality of care in writing to them but to write to local HSE officials? This is important. Does the Minister of State approve of this new form of accountability in the HSE, whereby he will try to scapegoat officials lower down the chain of command? Health professionals are now being told not to write to senior HSE officials in order that they might know what is happening in the HSE. That is despicable. Having heard this, I do not believe the Minister, the Ministers of State, the Government or senior officials in the HSE have learned anything from what happened at Leas Cross.

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