Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt that many of the 320 complaints were not valid but a significant number are. I have met some of the families and the cases are appalling. I have five or six cases here but I was struck by a new one that came to me yesterday. Other Members would have received the letter too. The family's comment says it all. They were utterly dismayed at the review. No one spoke to them, no one asked them for any information and they know from a query to a named body that the files were not requested from the panel. How can the Minister stand over a review mechanism that does not even talk to the people concerned, does not ask for more clarification or documentation and does not go to the body concerned to read the original files and make a recommendation to her?

How can Members of these Houses stand over this process and call it an independent review to deal with the scale of concerns some of these families have about appalling experiences? I ask the Minister to stand over what the correspondent wrote, namely, that no one had spoken to the family and that no one had asked them for any information. Moreover, no one has approached the agency and looked for the case files, yet the panel made a recommendation to the Minister and she stands over it.

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