Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

We have the report. The HSE had the report by the end of November but it was not in a position to publish the report because of the contents of the report until it went through what I will term the process of natural justice. I will give the Deputy this assurance that as soon as that process is completed, the report will be published.

The Barrington's Hospital report will be published immediately when I receive it. I will ensure the Attorney General gives me advice but I will not be holding back that report.

We want to learn from all these mistakes with a view to ensuring that it minimises the chance of it happening again.

Mr. John Fitzgerald is a man of great integrity. He has complete independence in the carrying out of this report. Any resources he requires will be made available. However, the board of the HSE does not meet every week. When I asked the board to carry out a review, it appointed a sub-committee to take charge of the review and this is normal practice. The sub-committee is neither to write the report nor to vet the report nor to approve a draft of the report but rather simply to deal with some of the logistics associated with his investigation.

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