Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. It is refreshing to have the Minister of State responsible take an issue when it arises. She has dealt with this issue all throughout the process and I thank her for that.

I first raised the issue of the Brandon report in a Topical Issue in the convention centre in July 2021. At that time, the Ceann Comhairle said on the conclusion of the debate: "Any members of the public watching these proceedings will wonder if they live in a democracy or an autocracy when a State agency can deliberately and protractedly frustrate the efforts of a Minister of State to get information about a fundamentally serious matter."

Since that time, she has tried to get the HSE in Donegal, and, I contend, nationally, to be accountable for the failings to service users in Donegal at Ard na Gréine and, indeed, to Brandon himself as well.

Families, unfortunately, have been kept waiting too. The whole way the families have been treated has been terrible and it leaves a stain on all of us. Whether we can ever achieve answers for them is debatable at this stage. The HSE has prevented the closure of Ard na Gréine and the decongregation of the setting as the solution to end the problem. However, how much decongregation has actually happened in Ard na Gréine? Perhaps the Minister of State can address that in her response as well. My information is that nothing has happened there and that is shocking. It calls into question the HSE commitment to making things right even at this stage. Sadly, I do not believe there has ever been an acceptance by the HSE that what happened was wrong and it would make sure that it would not happen again. The fact that decongregation has not happened proves that.

The Minister of State has worked on the issue and has tried to get the system, that is, the HSE, to deal with the issue and treat the families with the respect that they deserve. It seems it comes down once again to saving money on behalf of the HSE and the most important people, who are the service users, are being left behind. Unfortunately, it is over a year since the Minister of State said she would be in a position to publish a review of the system in CHO 1, which she hoped would make possible learning from the mistakes of the past possible by looking at what works and what does not work in the system and whether the system is now robust. Recently, some people have offered a chance to participate at this late stage and maybe give feedback to the reviewer. I know they have not been contacted or spoken to during the process, which is not good enough.

While the purpose of this process might be to look at what is currently in place, surely we need to know about the failings of the system as well. In order to see what works, surely it is necessary to understand what did not work. There is also the issue of the HSE nationally, which is not addressing this process at all. There is no doubt that Brandon and service users were failed by the HSE locally in Donegal but I believe we were all failed by the HSE nationally. It participated in a cover up and only looked to protect itself as an organisation. It is only by all of us admitting where things were done wrong before that we can aim to correct mistakes in the future. The least that victims like Brandon and their families can hope is that this will not happen to another family. Sadly, I am not sure that will be the case the way that things have gone.

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