Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take this opportunity to congratulate former Senator Clune on her election to the European Parliament.

As one who would be sceptical about the banking inquiry and the role of elected representatives in inquiries of this nature because of the potentially partisan nature of the engagements, I stress that someone like Senator Sean Barrett is ideally qualified and has proven himself to be an acute and incisive voice, particularly on economic and financial matters. People should be happy to see a person of his calibre who is a quality independent voice. This inquiry should only be conducted by independent politicians who do not have any political axe to grind. I make this point without in any way casting aspersions on Senator MacSharry’s excellent credentials.

I refer to a Fianna Fáil motion on maternity services, which was debated in the House last week and I compliment my Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin colleagues on bringing to light some important issues. I was attending a meeting of the justice committee when the debate took place. It seems to me that certain answers given by the Minister for Health on that occasion were woefully vague, to say the least.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh raised the question of a possible conflict of interest involving the chairman of the west-north-west hospital group. I think his question on that possible conflict of interest involving Mr. Daly stands and was not adequately addressed by the Minister. In the course of his response the Minister referred to an internal HSE review of the procurement of the contract with The Health Partnership.

The first issue raised was the association of certain members of the west and north-west hospital group, and particularly the chairman, with The Health Partnership group.