Results 81-100 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: And the end result was that that person was open to abuse for all those years.

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

Joe Costello: I will be brief. What we have heard today has been extremely disturbing. The members of the HSE deputation have already admitted to mishandling and to erroneous and inaccurate information - indeed, misinformation - being provided. We saw from the case of Ann that there was a gross and grave dereliction of duty in terms of the HSE's responsibility of care. There is prima facieevidence of...

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

Joe Costello: Mr. O'Brien told us that some of these people were working with Tusla.

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

Joe Costello: Did Mr. O'Brien not indicate that some of the people named in the reports were working with Tusla?

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

Joe Costello: Not directly in care, but for which the HSE has a caring responsibility.

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

Joe Costello: No, we have been over all of that. The HSE demanded that the family cease activity.

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

Joe Costello: Then the HSE sent a formal letter to the parents, who immediately accepted what the HSE did, but it had been blaming them in the years prior to that for not listening to it.

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

Joe Costello: That is the import of that section.

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

Joe Costello: I do not want to go down that road again, but it is clearly the import of the section that the responsibility rested with the parents and not the HSE. It washed its hands of responsibility. It then took responsibility in October 2013.

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

Joe Costello: Up to that time, the HSE sat on its hands and effectively blamed the parents.

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

Joe Costello: Any reasonable person reading Mr. O'Brien's statement would come to that conclusion.

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

Joe Costello: That was not my question. We have been over this ground before. My question is on the people who are still in the HSE's employ and in respect of whom no disciplinary action has been taken. No one has been suspended and, as far as we can gather from today, no action can be taken until such time as the inquiries are complete. This is the message that we are getting.

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

Joe Costello: The HSE's hands are tied and, therefore, vulnerable children will remain vulnerable.

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

Joe Costello: I do not want to go on with this, Chairman. We are getting nowhere. There are people in the HSE's employ who have not been disciplined and are potentially still in contact with vulnerable children, yet it has no protocols in place or internal-----

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

Joe Costello: I know.

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

Joe Costello: We have been given a description of a dysfunctional organisation. We need to know whether the HSE is putting its own house in order so that, when there is prima facieevidence of vulnerable children being in danger, albeit not necessarily evidence that is raised in court, but involving whistleblowers and so on, it will take action without waiting for an investigation and show clearly that it...

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

Joe Costello: That is in all the community care areas.

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

Joe Costello: It is also fully resourced.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Joe Costello: I thank the Chair and Deputy Deasy for the outstanding work they have done in highlighting this issue. I also acknowledge the media and our national broadcaster for its in-depth coverage of the incredible injustice done to people in the Waterford foster home and for really bringing it home to the public. The committee received, at its last meeting, a very specific statement that an apology...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Joe Costello: Just before that, is there time to bring the HSE in before this committee, considering the seriousness of the matter?