Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak and I thank Sinn Féin. I will start by apologising to the parents and those lovely boys and girls who were harmed and not treated properly by the HSE. Those youngsters and parents did nothing wrong. I have to reiterate that they did absolutely nothing wrong. They sought help and did not get it. Some 1,332 children were not dealt with properly. Were it not for locum doctor consultant psychologist, Dr. Ankur Sharma, who raised the alarm about multiple medications to young mental health patients, how much longer would this have gone on?

One would think that when there was only a locum and not a senior consultant in place, management would have been more hands-on and managed what was going on. Paul Reid, who suggested there would be criminal investigations, should include himself. He gets approximately €420,000 and all he does is read out figures on the television every night. Any public relations person could do that. His job should be to monitor every last thing going on in the HSE on the ground.

The Irish Medical Council will draw up a report. Will it be influenced by the HSE? I have heard too often from hardworking nurses and carers who are afraid to open their mouths about any inadequacies in the HSE in the hospitals or any of the care facilities. Why are they afraid? They would be ostracised or maybe lose their jobs and they still work hard. That is very wrong and that culture must be rooted out and stopped, because that is what is going on. Even GPs are afraid to speak out. The HSE stumbles from one fiasco to another.

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