Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The culture that exists in the HSE is one of secrecy, not answering questions and a lack of transparency. The HSE is a law unto itself. That has been laid bare since Vicky Phelan brought this scandal into the public domain. The question for the Minister is whether he can trust anybody in his Department or the HSE because the only solutions offered by the HSE when it became aware of this scandal were to hide it and cover it up. Its priority was to protect the men in suits and the faceless officials behind closed doors rather than the patients. The director general of the HSE gave two fingers to patients, the public, the women of Ireland and the Minister.

It is clear that the Minister has lost control of the HSE. In spite of all the heartache, stress, worry, illness and death and everything the director general did and stood over, he was not sacked by the Minister. What will the Minister do to fix this situation? All Members know that the HSE cannot answer a question directly. There is a culture of dishonesty at the top of the organisation at the very least. The Minister has lost the confidence of the public, especially women. Who are the faceless officials in the HSE over whom the Minister has absolutely no control? Mandatory open disclosure legislation is the only solution. What happened on the previous occasion on which mandatory open disclosure came before the House? The Minister, the Government and Fianna Fáil blocked its introduction. Fine Gael voted against it and Fianna Fáil sat on the fence and abstained, as it always does. The Minister has been speaking with a forked tongue on this issue because the Government blocked mandatory open disclosure. I hope the Minister will do the right thing this time. The spotlight is on him.

The Minister has been shamed into doing it. It is no wonder there is a culture of non-disclosure and lack of transparency in the upper echelons of the HSE when no leadership has been given by the Government or previous Governments on this important matter.

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