Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

Would this legislation protect me if I were to send the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, a letter detailing the concerns expressed to me by a constituent regarding practices in a hospital, nursing home or health care facility in County Wexford? I think the answer to that is no. The Deputies and Senators of Oireachtas Éireann are not considered trustworthy enough to be covered by this legislation. People trust us, to some degree, as public representatives, to carry information on their behalf with a certain amount of protection from the State to help look after their interests.

Information given to me as a Deputy may be false and this is something that we must be wary of. Under this legislation it will not be possible to get protection when a constituent passes on information without announcing it in public as a parliamentary question that receives parliamentary protection. I will not be able to write to the Minister requesting she explore concerns expressed to me by a constituent at a clinic. The Minister is suggesting that people with concerns, for example in Wexford or the south east, must instead make their complaints about a person in a health care facility to an individual in an office who may work with or be married or related to the person in question. The Minister is not that stupid and knows that it will not be long before issues of confidentiality relating to who has come before a deciding officer come down the grapevine.

The legislation relating to whistleblowers is useless and not worth the paper on which it is written. People will not be willing to approach a person in the structures the Minister has established, though they will receive whistleblowers' protection. The Minister should have learned from the Leas Cross matter, though it is clear she has made no inquiries as to what happened in that case. If a person who made complaints about Leas Cross had to adhere to these procedures he or she would have been ostracised by those working for the HSE. The Minister must change this legislation so that people can have access to others who they trust with complaints and to ensure a certain degree of anonymity in the system.

The Minister must have a contract with the HSE. If a general practitioner, GP, trainer went to the HSE suggesting his or her trainee had an alcohol problem there could be a risk because, to the best of my knowledge, the GP trainers who train the next generation of Irish GPs have no contract with the HSE. If GP trainers have no contract with the HSE how will the Minister protect them when they express concerns about trainee GPs? If the concerns are expressed in reports that go back to the central office and the information is incorrect they may be subject to legal action. GP trainers cannot protect patients of the future under this legislation because the Minister has no contract with them and is making no effort in this regard. She is blindly letting this happen.

The HSE was set up under the Health Bill 2004 and it took two years for the Minister to sign off on Part 9, the complaints procedure. Regarding Leas Cross, I have seen nothing that gives me confidence that the HSE will not try a cover-up or whitewash if something goes wrong. It is clear that neither the Minister nor Professor Drumm bothered to read the Leas Cross report on protecting patients by Professor Des O'Neill.

See this speech in context