Gerard O’Donnell, solicitor for Savita Halappanavar’s family spoke with Pat Kenny this morning on RTE R1 to relay Savita’s husband Praveen’s concerns over the make-up of the HSE inquiry.
Up to this afternoon the inquiry panel, included three consultants from University College Hospital Galway, the hospital where Savita died.
During the interview, Mr O’Donnell confirmed that, according to Praveen, the decision to not allow for a termination at the hospital was made… at consultant level.
Gerard O’Donnell: “(Praveen) has no faith in the HSE. It’s important to remember that he lost his wife, whilst under the care of the HSE. He feels that anybody who was appointed by the HSE, and paid for by the HSE, to conduct an inquiry into his wife’s death won’t meet the criteria that we would advise him as lawyers of getting to the truth.”
Kenny: “Now each individual who is in this team of seven, including the chairman, is an eminent person in their own right and in their own field. Is it simply that three of them are attached to University College Hospital Galway and it’s simply that?”
O’Donnell: “No, it’s not. It goes beyond that. One must remember that she died whilst in the care of the HSE. The HSE will be paying those to adjudicate upon that. Effectively, they’re on the payroll. We want evidence to be taken under oath, where it can be properly tested, by cross examination and all the proper legal procedures of an inquiry, an oral inquiry, held in public, to be adopted by the minister.”
Kenny: “So even if the three members of the committee, from the hospital in Galway were to step down voluntarily, with replacements from far and wide, that would not suffice for the family’s concerns?”
O’Donnell: “No again, because this is an inquiry that’s proposed to be held in private, a confidential inquiry. Evidence will not be given under oath, it won’t be cross-examined. So we wouldn’t be satisfied with that and nor would our client.”
Kenny: “It was suggested that your client Praveen is prepared to wait, if that is what it takes, and last night, on the Frontline, Joan Burton said the findings of this committee would not necessarily do away with the emergence of a sworn public inquiry at a later date.”
O’Donnell: “I just don’t know how the HSE will conduct an inquiry without his consent. They would have to look at her records. And we haven’t given any records, any consent, and neither has my client, to her records being, to Savita’s records to being looked at.”
Kenny: “One would expect that Praveen himself would be an important witness in this regard. He was by his wife’s side pretty much continuously in the throes of her final illness or her illness. If he is not prepared to testify then this committee of inquiry will go nowhere.”
O’Donnell: “That’s correct and he was with her right throughout, from when she went into the hospital on the Sunday until she died the following Sunday, or Saturday night, late on Saturday night. He was there with her all the time. He is a very, very important witness. He witnessed the request for a termination on a few occasions and he will be essential to any inquiry.”
Kenny: “Can you share with us, at what level this request was made, was it at consultant level, or at midwife level, or at nursing level?”
O’Donnell: “It was made at consultant level.”
Kenny: “At consultant level.”
Earlier: Farce
(Asia Press)
