Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues, which are very serious and are taken very seriously by the Government. As the Deputy said, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has worked with him in respect of the Brandon report, which is a shocking and very disturbing report. What happened in that instance has caused enormous distress and hurt to the families involved. A national independent review has been commissioned by the HSE to carry out a review of abuse allegations at a HSE-provided residential service for adults with a disability.

In respect of the advice, the Minister of State sought the Attorney General's advice regarding the publication of the full Brandon report. As the Deputy knows, the HSE published the executive summary of that report last December. The advice received was that it is a matter for the HSE and the Minister of State may not direct the HSE to publish the report. The Garda is still completing its work and has advised the HSE against publication. The HSE, as the body responsible for publication, has determined that the report should not be published in full, but we are not finished with that yet. We will continue to pursue that because full transparency is required but, at the same time, we do not want to imperil or undermine any potential investigation the Garda may pursue regarding this.

In respect of the CHO 1 situation, HIQA advised the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State in December that the chief inspector had concerns about the ongoing governance of social care in CHO 1, including, as the Deputy outlined, a serious adult and child safeguarding concern. HIQA conducted unannounced inspections of all HIQA-designated centres for people with disabilities in Donegal, except those that had been inspected since September 2021. Preliminary feedback on the inspections has been provided to the HSE. HIQA's report on the inspections is expected shortly. I am advised, however, no issues were identified that have not been responded to appropriately, but we have to see the full report of those inspections. There are concerns, which the Minister is pursuing further, about the broader area of establishing the response and capacity of the CHO 1 area in respect of senior management there and how it is handling cases, some of which date back to the management of cases in 2016 and 2017. Terms of reference have been drawn up regarding that particular exercise.

More generally, the Deputy raised the issue of the HSE's nationwide response to matters of this kind. In the first instance, the HSE has a national framework in which there has be to be full disclosure on issues such as this. There are clear benchmarks against which it needs to be judged in fulfilling those objectives.

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