Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The matter I am raising is the need for the Minister to clarify whether her Department or any agency of the State is involved, financially or otherwise, in a legal action threatened by the Mater Misericordiae Hospital against the founder of Patients Together, Ms Janette Byrne. The Minister will be glad to know that Ms Byrne is in the Public Gallery today.

It is scandalous that the Mater Misericordiae Hospital should threaten the founder of Patients Together with legal action. Ms Byrne is a courageous woman who has battled against cancer, as has her mother. Arising from her experience in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, she founded Patients Together to campaign against the appalling conditions pertaining in the accident and emergency unit in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital.

Recently she published a book entitled If It Were Just Cancer: A Battle for Dignity and Life in which she recounts her battle with cancer, her experiences in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and the shortcomings in hygiene in St. Vincent's ward where she received chemotherapy. In the book and on many other occasions that I witnessed, she generously praised the nursing and medical staff for the quality of their work and their service in ensuring patients were dealt with efficiently and professionally. She stated there was a quality service at all times.

However, the Mater hospital directed the eminent firm, William Fry, solicitors, to send an Exocet in her direction. The solicitors threatened her publishers, Veritas, and demanded:

...you inform Ms Byrne of our client's concerns and request that she does not report these allegations again. In addition, our clients require that you reprint the book extinguishing all the factual misstatement contained therein. We must also insist that you immediately remove from your website language designed to promote your publication, which is defamatory.

Thankfully, Janette Byrne is made of sterner stuff and she directed her solicitor to respond with a robust defence. She countered that the hospital is trying to bully her into silence.

The response to this issue on "Liveline" yesterday and on Tuesday was a ringing endorsement of Janette's description of her experience in her book by members of the public who experienced the same conditions in the accident and emergency department and St. Vincent's ward in the Mater hospital. As recently as last Saturday I inspected the accident and emergency department in the hospital, as I do most Saturdays during my weekly vigil. I stood outside the department every Saturday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. for more than three years. Despite the statements on the hospital's website, the overcrowding was as bad as ever with chairs and trolleys taking up the entire department. I have received numerous complaints from patients and relatives about hygiene in the department's toilets.

It is not good enough that a wholly publicly funded hospital, which is one of the largest in the State, should respond to somebody like Janette Byrne who has taken up the cudgels against it on behalf of vulnerable and sick patients who are left lying on trolleys and sitting on chairs for days by taking legal action. Equally appalling conditions pertain in the accident and emergency departments of other hospitals.

Is the Department or another State agency involved in the legal action? Has the Minister of State contributed or supported, financially or otherwise, this threatened action by the Mater hospital against Veritas and Janette Byrne? If so, it is scandalous that Exchequer funds should be used in this fashion. Will the Minister of State give a commitment that State funding to the hospital will not be used under any circumstances to process the legal action, if it proceeds? Janette Byrne has done a fantastic service to the State. It is a matter of concern to many vulnerable and ill people that these issues are highlighted. If the State colludes in silencing somebody like her, we will have a serious problem on our hands. I call on the Minister of State to clarify the position on the legal action and whether he has hand, act or part in it.

Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I am taking on the adjournment on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children.

I am aware of the recent publicity surrounding the issuing of a letter by solicitors on behalf of the Mater hospital in the context of a book written by one of its former patients. The Department is advised by the HSE that the hospital is not pursuing a legal action against the patient in question. The hospital accepts the right of a patient to highlight what they perceive to be inadequacies in the service and acknowledges the entitlement of the patient to express opinions regarding the treatment received as a patient in the hospital. The HSE has advised that the hospital's solicitors have written to the publishers pointing out what the hospital sees as a number of factual inaccuracies and misstatements contained in the book and asking that those inaccuracies and misstatements be corrected in the next edition.

This course of action is being pursued by the Mater hospital in its own right as a voluntary hospital. Neither the Department nor the Health Service Executive is party to communications between the hospital and the publishers. The Department is further advised that any costs arising from the course of action being taken by the hospital will be paid out of its own resources, not out of any moneys provided by the Exchequer.