Results 61-80 of 7,777 for speaker:Joe Costello

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I will stop Ms Colley at that. Everybody was getting an apology, and the HSE was going to give a special apology to Grace and her birth mother. How could it end up that no apology at all took place, if the HSE was going to give a special apology?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: How could it be that the two people who were supposed to give the apology deny that they were ever to do so? Are they telling lies?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I really cannot buy that. If this was supposed to be a special apology, how could it be a watered-down statement of remorse?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: That is not miscommunication. How does one miscommunicate a special apology with a watered-down version?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I know it is, but a document was rushed to the Committee of Public Accounts for our meeting of the 21st to say categorically that what was in the Irish Examinerwas inaccurate, false and untrue without the facts having been checked.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: It is very hard for those of us on this side of the table to buy that. This was an important case. We have had a few inquiries into it. We have the Resilience and the Conal Devine reports and a review from the Minister. We have evidence highlighting that not only was an apology not given but the Committee of Public Accounts, which was considering this issue in depth, was informed...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: If this apology was so important, why was it left to two people who were new to the service and not allocated to somebody with a high level of responsibility and accountability?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I will not pursue this point further other than to say it smacks of either fabrication or incompetence of a very high order. I wish to put a question in respect of Ann who was in this home during the period from 2011 to 2013.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I understand the HSE sought legal advice relating to Ann in 2012, despite the fact there were serious problems of abuse from 1995 and the HSE took no action. The HSE tried to persuade the family not to send Ann into the abusive care. Why did it not close it down and put a stop to it? It took the HSE another three years from the time of the legal advice to send a letter which was, as Mr....

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: I know that, but it is the way they were followed up that leaves a lot to be desired.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: That is Ann, but what about the foster home? Why did the HSE not close it down earlier? It was telling the family not to send her there but it was doing nothing about the home itself.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: Before Deputy McDonald contributes, I would like an answer to my question about Ann. Mr. O'Brien said that various engagements were made with the family to persuade them to cease contact with Ann's foster family from 2011 to 2013, but that it took the HSE until 2013 to demand that the foster family cease all care activity, and that immediately after the letter was written to Ann's family to...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: It was a care facility. It could be described as a care facility. Mr. O'Brien, in his remarks, described it as a care facility.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: Will Mr. Healy please answer the simple question? Why did the HSE not order that facility to cease operating as a care facility in 2011? Why did it wait until 2013 to decide to terminate it as a care facility if it was trying to persuade people not to go there in 2011?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: Just give me a straight answer.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: Mr. O'Brien is not answering the question.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: The question is based purely on Mr. O'Brien's own remarks to us this morning. In October 2013, the HSE formally demanded the foster home to cease all care activity. Now Mr. O'Brien is saying that the HSE did not have the authority then-----

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: -----but it did so later, in 2013. The HSE had the same authority in 2011 as in 2013. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: So why did it not take action in 2011?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Joe Costello: That is the most evasive answer I have ever heard.