No Saving Grace

From top: Health Minister Leo Varadkar (right) this afternoon; Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch

Kathleen Lynch, Minister for Primary Care, Social Care and Mental Health, supported by Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, is recommending that the Government establish a statutory Commission of Investigation into events in a foster home in the South East.

“The work that is underway by Mr Conor Dignam SC will greatly inform the drafting of the Terms of Reference for a Commission of Investigation. We need to be precise and focussed on the questions that remain unanswered. I strongly believe it is in the public interest that we establish the facts surrounding vulnerable people who were placed in this foster home”, said Minister Lynch.

Minister Lynch confirmed that additional resources have been approved in order to allow Mr Dignam expedite his ongoing review. It is now anticipated that this will be completed by the end of April 2016.

Ministers Lynch and Varadkar are requesting copies of the Devine Report and the Resilience report from the HSE under section Section 40C of the Health Act 2004 (as amended).

“Mr Dignam has had access to these two reports in completing his review. We believe that direct access by us to these reports – using these legislative powers – will greatly assist us in understanding the facts surrounding the disturbing allegations about events in a foster home in the south east of the country which have been the subject of much attention recently “, said Minister Lynch.

Commenting on a meeting with the HSE this afternoon which was also attended by Minister Varadkar, Minister Lynch said: “It is clear that there have been failures in protecting vulnerable people in our care. For a number of reasons, it has been difficult to establish the facts with certainty. This has been acknowledged and I am confident that through the Commission of Investigation we can resolve this. While this is very much in the public interest, it is also in the interest of those vulnerable people who are directly affected and their families.”

Government statement concerning the mute woman with intellectual disabilities, referred to as Grace, who was left behind in a foster home with an abusive family in Waterford until 2009. She had lived there since 1983.

Her eventual removal from the home came after other children had been removed in 1995, following concerns being raised with the then Southern Health Board in 1992.

Yesterday, HSE director general Tony O’Brien told RTÉ’s This Week:

“There were persons in that home, including some who were there privately, after that person [Grace] was removed.”

This morning the Irish Examiner reported:

“Responding to detailed Irish Examiner questions last night, the HSE confirmed the previously unknown second woman had been living with the family since 1993 and was only removed in October 2013.”

The HSE will go before the Public Accounts Committee tomorrow at 12 noon in relation to the Devine Report.

Statement by Minister Kathleen Lynch on a foster home in the South East (Merrion Street)

Related: Foster scandal: Second case is revealed (Daniel McConnell and Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, Irish Examiner)

Previously: ‘What Was In The Records?’

Rollingnews

UPDATE:

Junior health minister Kathleen Lynch – who last week said she first learned of the situation in Waterford in April 2014 – spoke to Mary Wilson on RTÉ’s Drivetime following the announcement of the Commission of Investigation.

From the interview…

Mary Wilson: “Sorry, Minister, just trying to get the chronology here. We had two reports going back to 2011, I guess, or sorry, 2012. You had the Devine Report and then you had, is it the Resilience Report?”

Kathleen Lynch: “Yes.”

Wilson: “And now we have a report in preparation, who is Conor Dignam? And who assigned him to prepare a report?”

Lynch: “Senior counsel, I appointed him. And I asked him to simply take a desktop review of the two reports because the whistleblowers had concerns about, not about the contents of the reports, because we hadn’t seen those – even though we will now because we’ve made a formal request to have them and that is going to happen very shortly.”

Wilson: “And when did he start work?”

Lynch: “He started work last September.”

Wilson: “And you had a preliminary report from…”

Lynch: “Yes, yes we have…”

Wilson: “Did you learn from that report that there had been another child or adult in…”

Lynch: “No, Mary, that wasn’t what we asked him to do. But his second and I appointed him formally to do the second part of his, of his, of his overview at the start of December and he will have that completed by the end of April because we’ve allocated additional resources…”

Later

Wilson: “Have you been able to establish has anybody been suspended, has anybody been sacked, has anybody been moved from where they worked in the past? Has anything changed?”

Lynch: “Well, I did ask that question and all I can say to you is, is the answer that I’ve been given: not that we can establish. I’m sure that people have retired, I’m sure some people have left the organisation…”

Wilson: “Were some people forced into, were some people forced into early retirement?”

Lynch: “No, no, I have no reason to believe that, no reason to believe that, Mary. But what I am saying to you is that there are some incredibly good people working in the HSE and that area. Some of them are still there, doing the same job and there were a lot, I suppose, changes made, reconfiguration done as a result of one of the reports. I’m assured of that.”

Listen back in full here

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