Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First of all, the Government is very aware of the trauma that many individuals and families continue to go through in the context of this issue. The families will get to see a full report. We want that to happen as soon as possible.

The HSE commissioned the national independent review panel, NIRP, to carry out a review of abuse allegations at a HSE-provided residential service for adults with disabilities. The purpose of the NIRP was to review the governance arrangements for the facility to which the Deputy referred and to understand why this situation continued over a period of years without any effective action being taken by management during Brandon's residency to stop and prevent these highly traumatic assaults. The report identified 108 occurrences of sexually inappropriate behaviours by one resident, referred to by the pseudonym Brandon, towards 18 other residents of the facility between 2003 and 2011. The report notes that these incidents occurred with the full knowledge of staff and management of the facility at the time.

The safety and protection of vulnerable people in the care of the State is paramount and the first concern of the Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, is to ensure that the needs of the current service users are being prioritised fully and addressed. The HSE has assured the Minister that there is no ongoing risk to service users and that the national governance and accountability structures to oversee implementation of the recommendations arising from the report are in place.

Local gardaí wrote to the HSE on Thursday, 4 November, requesting that the HSE continue to maintain the agreement not to publish the detailed executive summary until it completes its process. Separately, An Garda Síochána wrote to the HSE on Friday, 5 November - the following day - indicating there was a factual inaccuracy in the executive summary which it indicated should be corrected and requesting a copy of the full report. The correspondence is being sent to the chair of the NIRP, who drafted the report and executive summary, for her attention.

At this point, the only pause on progressing full publication is the specific request of An Garda Síochána. Currently, if the chair of the NIRP is satisfied that the report is accurate, there will be no need for any further delay. My understanding is that the Minister is very keen to ensure this report is published as soon as possible and that if there are any issues that need to be addressed between An Garda Síochána, the chair of the NIRP and the HSE, they need to be addressed quickly. Families deserve to get the full truth and to see this full report - not an executive summary or an extended executive summary, but the full report. They have already been through enough in relation to this case. The Deputy is correct that there does need to be political input to ensure the full unvarnished truth in respect of what happened here and the responsibility that comes with that in terms of those who were in positions of decision-making needs to be published and it needs to be transparent. That is the least the families deserve. The Minister of State met families who wished to meet her last Friday on a one-to-one basis to discuss the events and to outline the approach she is taking. I assure the Deputy that the Government wants this report published, and quickly.

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