Grace whistleblower piles pressure on HSE
O’Brien is urged to sack guilty parties or hand in his resignation
A‘GRACE’ case whistleblower has told the Irish Mail on Sunday that HSE director general Tony O’Brien should either sack those responsible for the scandal and cover-up or take responsibility himself and resign.
Mr O’Brien appeared at the Public Accounts Committeeon Thursday to explain why he had wrongly told that committee last year that a number of people involved in the Grace case had left the public service.
One member of the HSE panel who left the intellectually disabled woman known as Grace in an allegedly abusive foster home is in fact still working for the public service, Mr O’Brien revealed.
Now a woman who came forward and made a protected disclosure believes that people should lose their jobs over the scandal.
The whistleblower says nobody has apologised to her for the treatment she has received since coming forward. She also claims that there has been a cover-up.
‘I would like to see Tony O’Brien demanding accountability from those providing him with information and those with oversight of this since 2009. I would have confidence in him if I saw that he had the ability to hold someone to account,’ said the whistleblower.
‘People either have to resign or be forced to.’
Mr O’Brien’s performance was seen as confrontational by some in attendance at the PAC.
The whistleblower said: ‘If those at a very senior level appearing at the PAC can’t get accountability at any level for the manner in which the protected disclosures were handled, you have an allegation of a cover-up made in 2009, and nearly eight years later it hasn’t been investigated.
‘Who takes responsibility? How can you have people in senior roles where there is no attempt to investigate protected disclosures?’
An allegation of a cover-up was made in the first reports made by HSE workers to superiors in 2009. This was not enquired into.
‘Senior people have been there since 2009. They knew of our disclosure in November 09,’ she said.
A commitment to investigate allegations of a cover-up is now in the terms of reference.
The whistleblower also believes that she is entitled to an apology from superiors for the manner in which her claims were treated.
‘A senior person is not willing to apologise to me for the mess-up, he’s not willing to take responsibility for the failure to investigate the cover-up, for the inadequate and inappropriate reviews that were conducted,’ she said.
‘Is Tony O’Brien? Who is he going to say is responsible for this?
‘That has to fall somewhere at a high level in the HSE or in the director general’s office.
‘We have to ask the PAC whether they accept the evidence given to them by Tony O’Brien.
‘I would like to see him demanding accountability from those providing him with information and those with oversight of this since 2009. I would have confidence in him if I saw that he had the ability to hold someone to account.’
Mr O’Brien apologised to the PAC for failing to tell them that one of the HSE staff involved in the Grace case was still employed by Tusla on a part-time basis. Another is working with an organisation he would not name, but the MoS can confirm is also Tusla.
‘I’d like to see him demand accountability’
OUR fatal inability to hold anyone accountable manifested itself elsewhere this week, when HSE boss Tony O’Brien admitted that many of the professionals involved in the ‘Grace’ case – where a young woman remained in care in a home known to be unsafe from abuse – still worked for the health service. Earlier, he had claimed many had since retired.
Mr O’Brien must act now. He must sack those responsible. To allow anyone who leaves a vulnerable woman open to abuse, anguish or worsening health, to remain in employment looks like sanction instead of censure. If Mr O’Brien feels he cannot do this, then the honourable course of action would be to tender his own resignation.