Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was glad to hear Sinn Féin party leader, Deputy McDonald, say this morning that she would work with the Minister in every way to get this Bill right. We have an opportunity and a grave responsibility to get it right. As everyone has said, there is no issue with the Bill itself and I welcome the amendments that have been tabled. Everyone across this House is attempting to do the right thing. We cannot leave this Bill without doing the right thing.

The question which seems to be glaring is: why is the system fighting against transparency and truthfulness? If there is one thing we can inject into the health service, it is that transparency. We have to get away from the position where the system is being protected and the patient does not come first. This has happened in so many matters. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to insert the duty of candour into the Bill. We cannot have self-regulation of issues and we cannot put the responsibility on patients to come forward all the time. We cannot expect the person to do everything and the system to fail them time and again.

I wish to speak to the wider issue of protected disclosures. This morning I raised the matter with the Taoiseach of protected disclosures that are in at the moment relating to the Western Care Association in County Mayo. Current and former staff within that organisation were brave enough to come forward to express concerns they had about the services. I wrote to the Minister some time last week. These matters arrived on my desk after I had read about them on the front page of The Mayo News. There are serious issues that need to be addressed. The reply I received to the parliamentary question that I tabled on the protected disclosures states: "The HSE does not share protected disclosures with the Department, therefore I am referring this to the HSE." I am concerned about that because we have to have accountability. We have to address these issues and give reassurance to families, service users and patients around how things will be handled. This afternoon I asked for a number of things to be done. I want to acknowledge the great work that is done by people in the HSE across the board and people within the Western Care Association. There are some excellent people who go above and beyond to protect the rights of those for whom they care. I have seen them do that throughout Covid-19 and outside of Covid-19. We have to have confidence in the system that if people working within that system see something wrong that they come forward. We have to change the culture of protecting the system. We must encourage people to come forward.

I want the Minister to guarantee that nobody will lose his or her job, that nobody will be exiled for coming forward with concerns and that families are not going to be disadvantaged by it, not only the families of the service users but also the families waiting to access the individualised services within the Western Care Association who desperately need those services. I am concerned that there is not an immediacy and there is not a completely independent and transparent process that can be taken up straightaway. However, this is not new. When the Wolfe report was done on the Western Care Association, one of the recommendations was to escalate individualised services to the organisation risk register. It pointed out significant risks. That was two years ago. The problem is that things are not done in a timely manner. I am still concerned that things do not happen. I need somebody to deal with this, to put up their hand and say, “I will deal with that”. The buck stops with the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on this. I just want them to be open and transparent and for us in Mayo to have confidence in a service and an organisation that does so much good work. When matters are brought to our attention, we all have a duty of care. When they arrived on my desk I had a duty of care. I do not like doing this because of all the workers who are there but I have a duty of care to do that.

Does the Minister know that the same thing happened regarding the Valproate issue? I thank him for announcing the inquiry, for which we were grateful at the time. However, it is two years he announced there would be an inquiry as to who knew what, when they knew it and why nobody did anything about it when women were prescribed Epilim when there was a tonne of evidence to say what the impact would be on their unborn children. Hundreds of children and families throughout the State have been impacted by this. Children have been born with disabilities. The terms of reference for the inquiry have been agreed. We have one Cabinet meeting remaining. I ask the Minister to bring this to Cabinet to get that inquiry up and running. These are all examples of cases where nobody shouted “Stop”. Harm is being done. We have to stop harm being done in the health system. This is one such opportunity where we can stop harm being done by getting this legislation right. If we fail to get it right it will be a case of shame on all of us. I ask the Minister to listen. I do not always agree with Deputy Kelly but he said it is not fit for purpose and that it does not pass the Vicky test. I did not know Vicky Phelan but I do not think that this passes the Vicky test either. We have to honour her name and her courage by getting the Bill right and ensuring these things never happen again. That way the Minister would be acknowledged for doing that within the system and for being the one Minister for Health who shouted "Stop".

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