Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the suggestion that my response makes this worse. I appreciate what Deputy Rabbitte is saying but I have been describing a process. There have been a number of reports and reviews, including by HIQA which had sight of the full operational review, accepted the recommendations and accepted that an action plan had been put in place to implement those recommendations.

I was asked questions about the board's concerns and the reasons for deciding that it was legally risky to publish. The board's concerns were that the reviewers went outside the terms of reference and that, while some issues were addressed, one issue was not addressed at all, namely, the requirement to identify obstacles or barriers to achieving greater implementation of international standards and best practice. They also dealt with issues of national law and policy and other matters over which Oberstown has no control. Fair procedures were not adhered to and Oberstown has advised that, for example, persons mentioned were not given an opportunity to respond to the reviewers' findings. Factual accuracy checks did not take place and although some changes were made to the report at the time, the findings did not change. These are some of the reasons underneath the fact that there are legal risks in the context of publication.

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