Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

On the issue that was previously raised and the legislation to facilitate the Health Service Executive to provide documentation to the review group, what consideration has been taken to ensure the matter is finally addressed correctly? What consideration is being given in the context of the promised legislation to giving a statutory function to the review group that has been formed to investigate the number of child deaths in care? Has consideration been given to the fact that if information is finally furnished by the Health Service Executive that requires the two individuals, Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons, to conduct inquiries about it, they have no statutory powers and they cannot compel any additional information to come from the Health Service Executive? They cannot require people within a managerial position nor social workers working within the Health Service Executive to clarify anything contained in documents they receive. This inquiry is going to run into obvious difficulty.

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