Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Here we are again, debating once more the chronic and apparently unresolvable dysfunction within both the HSE and sections of the health service. We know that at least 17 women have died. We also know that this is far from the end of the matter and that in all likelihood, as time goes on, more women and families will emerge. Children will be and have been robbed of their mothers' precious love. Young girls and boys will now grow up with no mother to share their concerns and their hopes and dreams. It is an appalling dereliction of care and a catastrophic failure that is making the people of this country sick to the core. The infuriating thing about this is that we never seem to learn our lessons sufficiently well from the previous debacle and mistakes. We all lament the deaths of these women. We all praise and support the courage of Vicky Phelan and her husband and children, who are now enduring a living hell. I salute Mr. Cian O'Carroll, a solicitor from Cashel, too.

All of this was brought to light out of the murky shadows of legal wrangling by a mother who was determined to find answers and to have accountability, on her own. If Vicky had not done this, would we still be living in blissful ignorance of the shocking failures of oversight and governance that have brought us to this situation? I say that we would. The Taoiseach had the gall to say today that we should not call for the head of Mr. Tony O’Brien, head of the HSE, because, the Taoiseach said, "everyone deserves a fair hearing". My goodness. How many fair hearings must Mr. O'Brien get before he is sacked? What fair hearings have the unfortunate ladies who have died, and their families, got? That is arrogance of the highest order. What about fair hearings and fair procedures for the women and families caught up in this sickening spectacle?

Last week I criticised Uisce Éireann on another matter by saying that it had displayed institutional arrogance. The very same could be said of the HSE. This is institutional arrogance and indeed political arrogance on the most horrifying scale. What hope can any of us place in such a body as the HSE, the most senior management of which seem indifferent to the realities of human life and whose first response is to ring for the barristers at the first hint of trouble. It is continuous and the barristers are creaming it all the way. The person or persons involved are then bombarded with legal challenges and intimidated further, adding to already existing stress. Where is the shame then? Where is the mock rage or sense of outrage then, when we do this daily? I salute the extraordinary courage of Vicky Phelan and all those women and families who have been dragged unwillingly into a scandal of enormous dimensions. Agencies of the State have robbed them of peace and subjected them to an horrific ordeal.

At the very least it is a scandal which demands the resignation of Mr. O'Brien and the Minister, Deputy Harris. The Minister is the head. As I said earlier today, the governance structure of the HSE is absolutely clear. The buck stops with the Minister, Deputy Harris, as the person who has overall responsibility for the leadership of those who direct and control its functions and who manage its business. In light of that, it is completely unsatisfactory for the calls for resignations to be reserved to Mr. O'Brien, the CEO, whom the Minister defended here recently, saying he was right to call parents emotional terrorists. I called the Minister a puppet of the HSE that day, and he is still a puppet. This is disgraceful and the Minister must go. Any objective observer who analyses the Minister's stewardship of the health service can only conclude that he has been an unmitigated disaster. There are record levels of patients on trolleys, chronic lack of bed capacity, a recruitment and retention policy of front-line staff that has had abysmal outcomes and last but not least a systemically dysfunctional HSE that has caused dozens of lives to be lost. What on earth will it take for the Minister to be sacked or to resign? Has he no shame? Look at Theresa May's Government. She has lost four Ministers in a short time and nobody died. This is manslaughter at least. The gardaí in any other country would be out arresting people and charging them with manslaughter or worse. This is shameful. It is wilful destruction of people's lives and families, perpetrated by the HSE ad nauseam. The Minister came to Cashel with me and looked at pristine new building which was empty. This is outrageous. The Minister has to open it and put beds in it. There is still not a bed in it. The Minister has no say whatsoever in the HSE so he should stand aside and let in someone who can stand up and do the job. The Minister is clearly unable, unfit and unwilling to do it. Shame on the Minister and on his colleagues. He must go now and bring Mr. O'Brien with him.

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