Alan Kelly (Labour)

It was the first report of a new organisation and I was impressed by its recommendations, its tone and its language. Following Rebecca's ability to speak about it — I spoke to her at length on a number of occasions since — the way in which HIQA worked with her over the intervening months and handled the matter is commendable.

It was obvious from the report that there was a single point of failure. In future we must learn that single points of failure in the health service are simply not good enough. We need a triple lock, as is reported in the recommendations.

The recommendations include three important points and Ms O'Malley repeats these ad nauseam in the media. They relate to how the HSE communicates and how it is introducing a patient-centred approach to the entire implementation of recommendations in the future. It is important we all read these recommendations. It is important that we on all sides of the House ensure they all are put in place for future patients. Ms O'Malley will create a legacy from her work, namely, patient empowerment resulting in patients asking more questions and demanding more answers from a health service that in the future will not be allowed get away with some of the things we all regret happened in the past.