Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No. The Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had no role to play in the decision, rather it was a policy decision taken by me. The plan before I took office was to establish a patient safety agency as a sub-agency of the HSE and the post of CEO of that sub-agency was advertised. The CEO would have been an employee of the HSE. I decided, however, that the original plan was wrong on two counts. First, a patient advocacy function should be independent of the HSE from day one. Staff should not be employed by the HSE; its budget should not be controlled by the HSE and it should be a separate entity, funded by my Department, for obvious reasons to avoid conflicts of interest. Second, the previous plan was to establish a patient safety agency that would, in fact, duplicate the functions of HIQA. HIQA has extensive patient safety agency functions. It is a patient safety agency which will have additional functions, including licensing, to enforce its recommendations in the future. Therefore, something different was needed. We did not need a duplicate HIQA as a sub-agency of the HSE but a totally independent patient advocacy service. That was my thinking, which has now been confirmed by the recommendations made by HIQA. My understanding is that the Deputy accepts HIQA's recommendations and supports the establishment of a patient advocacy service. Therefore, we agree on that point. Perhaps the Deputy might tell me what a separate and additional patient advocacy agency would add that is not already provided for.

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