John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge Deputy Shatter's true reforming zeal, the technical expertise and the enthusiasm he brought to the reform process in the Department of Justice and Equality. He showed skills in that area that could be learned by many others throughout government in this country. I think he saw current problems as problems to be fixed and not as something to wring one's hands and say "We cannot do anything about it". It is a shame that things have worked out as they have. I will not say anything further on this issue until we see the results of the full report that comes out about the handling of the entire issue of the reports of malpractices within the Garda Síochána. If it does emerge that there was a systematic manhandling of legitimate whistleblowers, who put their necks on the line in the service of this Republic, then the entire culture of government that allowed that to go on for so long must be addressed. It may well be that questions will be asked higher up the political food chain as to what exactly was going on in the past several months when everybody in the country was aware that serious allegations had been made and that rather than dealing with the allegations, every appearance is given that instead an attempt was made to undermine those who tried to blow the whistle - not only at one level but by civil servants, politicians, Ministers and by the higher echelons of the Garda Síochána. This is simply inexcusable. It is not acceptable in a democracy. It is not specific to this Government because I think those of us who are a certain age will remember the 1980s. We will remember that this is something that appears to be endemic in the process of government - this lack of accountability, which in its other manifestations has led to many of the financial disasters which we have had.

I request the Deputy Leader to get a commitment from the Department of Health that a report card will be submitted to us on the results of this very expensive - and I believe utterly wasteful - management consultancy exercise that Professor Robert S. Kaplan conducted on behalf of the HSE at huge cost and at a time that we have such a shortage of nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, speech therapists and where children are waiting so long for services. Will a report be given to the Members of this Chamber of the specific recommendations - in other words a value for money report - on the value for money consultancy? I think we need it.

I am glad that we have a lawyer of great repute acting as Leader this morning. I am still so incensed over this issue that the HSE was able to go to the Press Ombudsman in an attempt to silence wholly legitimate political criticism of the current policy with respect to medical cards. It is my intention in my next Private Members' Bill to attempt to introduce legislation which would limit the rights of publicly-funded bodies to resort to legal or other threats when they perceive that they have been "defamed". Criticising a public body is not defamation, it is democracy.