Ostracised and in debt for speaking out about the HSE’s neglect of Grace
■ Social worker forced to look for work abroad to support family ■ Claims Leo Varadkar did not act on his claims ■ Suffered a loss of gross earnings of over €70,000 ■ Must return to give evidence to Commission as and when needed
Covering my own costs has almost broken me
Subject to highly personalised attacks
THIRTEEN years ago, a courageous social worker with the HSE became the first whistleblower to bring concerns about the Grace case to the authorities.
Today the case is the subject of an ongoing Commission of Investigation and Grace has received a settlement of €6.3m from the HSE.
As a result of his actions, the whistleblower has paid a heavy price and his experience has left him very concerned about the mechanisms in place to facilitate whistleblowers in this country.
This is his story in his own words.
I AM the whistleblower whose disclosures to the HSE, HIQA and the Gardaí, prior to the subsequent protected disclosures by other care workers outside of the HSE, led to the establishment of the Farrelly Commission of Investigation.
This ongoing lengthy investigation relates to the neglect and suffering of a mentally incapacitated young woman while in the care of the HSE between 1989 and 2009.
I had previously made protected disclosures under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 to an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when he was Minister for Health, in 2014 and 2015, but sadly these were not acted upon.
These disclosures related to both children and vulnerable adults who had stayed at the south-east foster home, and also other specific instances of alleged neglect and risk of vulnerable persons in the care of the HSE.
I met in person with Mr Varadkar in January 2015 and discussed these concerns. For me, this saga began in July 2007, in my role as social work team leader for vulnerable adults, when I was contacted by the mother of the young woman now known as ‘Grace’.
Grace’s mother lived abroad and had not seen her daughter since she was a baby. She had been told that her daughter was safe and well and was receiving excellent HSE care.
At her request I carried out a thorough investigation of Grace’s circumstances including her foster home. In doing so, I identified dozens of other disabled children who had stayed there and reported this in full to HSE management in 2007 and 2008, recommending that Grace be made a ward of court so that she could be legally removed from the placement.
In the course of my investigation, I discovered that since at least 1993, the HSE, (then the South Eastern
Health Board), had been told about very serious allegations of abuse in relation to Grace’s foster home. In 1996, Michael Noonan, then minister for health, had been told of allegations of abuse in relation to one of Grace’s carers who is now deceased.
In March 2009, I, acting as a private citizen, made a formal statement of complaint to An Garda Síochána that Grace may have been physically or sexually abused. I requested a full investigation. In July 2009, Grace was eventually moved from the ‘foster home’. The HSE only moved Grace after I told her mother of my concerns and advised her to insist in writing that Grace be moved immediately. Grace has since been awarded €6m in damages by the High Court against the HSE.
I have suffered because of my actions. I was ostracised and marginalised within the HSE because I spoke out.
I brought my concerns about the HSE to Mr Varadkar but the then minister failed to act on my concerns, and so I retired early from the HSE in June 2015. I cannot find work in Ireland that I am qualified for as a senior social worker and all because I was truthful and stood on the toes of the HSE and other powerful persons.
I now find myself in a position of extreme hardship because I was a whistleblower and as a result of my continued co-operation with the Farrelly Commission.
Unlike the chairperson of the Farrelly Commission, [Marjorie Farrelly
SC] her staff and others such as current HSE management and staff appearing before the Commission, I am not being paid. I have to cover my own costs and it has almost broken me.
I have suffered a loss of gross earnings of over €70,000 over two years because of the time and commitment necessary for me to cooperate with the Farrelly Commission and also I am unable to pay my legal team. I am now questioning whether I can continue to engage with the Commission which has not yet completed its work.
Both the Farrelly Commission and the Department of Health have refused to make even an interim payment to me to relieve my hardship. This is an obvious penalty and punishment for a whistleblower who acted in good faith. It will cause other whistleblowers to stop in their tracks. It undermines The Protected Disclosures Act 2014.
It means that the State will ‘grind you down’ and that whistleblowers can be left practically destitute and abandoned if they speak up.
I have reviewed tens of thousands of documents relating to the Farrelly Commission and have submitted many written statements covering hundreds of pages.
I have spent more than 20 hours per week on this work for almost two years now. I have had to review approximately 22,000 pages of documentation provided to me by the Farrelly Commission alone.
I have attended hearings of the Commission on more than 40 days and read and reviewed daily transcripts of evidence on an ongoing basis, some of it relating to matters that occurred over 10 years ago.
So far, I have given evidence on the witness stand for 27 days, for at least six hours per day. During cross-examinations, I have been subject to highly personalised attacks on my reputation, credibility and even mental health.
I have had to relive the awful facts of the case and revisit the years of bullying and harassment that drove me out of the HSE and from which I am still yet to recover.
I have provided ongoing instruction to my legal team of solicitors and senior counsel and junior counsel. My legal team have attended the Commission on more than 120 days and many weeks of preparation are required in advance.
It is estimated that the Farrelly Commission has been sitting for in excess of 220 days in total and with no end in sight. This means that the Farrelly Commission is sitting more than three times longer than the longest running High Court Civil case of 63 days or more than twice as long as the longest running criminal law case of 92 days.
And yet, the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 clearly states that the Commission has a duty to act ‘expeditiously’.
From the period May 2018 to June 2019 I was unable to commit to paid employment due to my engagement at this level with the Farrelly Commission. I have now returned to working as a social worker in England and notified the Commission that I cannot re-engage with it, as they left me with practically no earnings for over a year to support myself and my family. My mortgage, bills and tax demands have gone unpaid.
Yet I have been told that I am a vital witness in the work of the Commission and must return to give evidence as and when required.
I now find myself in a dire financial situation, some 18 months since I first started assisting the Farrelly Commission with its work and 13 years since I first made my concerns known to the HSE regarding
‘Grace’. I have found it difficult to support myself or my family. I have received demands for payment from creditors including a sheriff’s demand in recent months. Until recently, my only income was
€441 per month from my HSE pension. I have had to choose between no income at all in Ireland while assisting the Farrelly Commission or supporting my family by seeking work abroad.
If this is the consequence for me as a whistleblower in the case of ‘Grace’, a vulnerable and mentally disabled person, why would anyone want to be a whistleblower?
One of the chief concerns that I raised with Mr Varadkar was that the State had no transparent and independent mechanism to address
Why would anyone want to whistleblow?
the issues that whistleblowers had raised. Instead, it was using investigations by private companies comprising ex-HSE staff or commissioned by the same staff in charge when things went wrong.
The Commission of Investigation Act 2004 suggested an alternative to this, but in practice it has resulted in my concerns being hidden behind closed doors for years on end.
Commissioned just before Enda Kenny called the last general election in 2017, we are told Health Minister Simon Harris has extended the deadline for Farrelly to report on Grace to May 2020, the same month Mr Varadkar has set for the next election. Other children in the placement will have to wait years before their stories are reported on by the Commission. l CONTACTED about the whistleblower’s statement, a Government spokesman said: ‘The Department of Health can confirm that a protected disclosure was made to the then ministers for health.
‘This was processed and managed in accordance with Protected Disclosure legislation. Making a protected disclosure refers to a situation where a worker discloses information in relation to a wrongdoing. The Government has policy and procedures for the making of protected disclosures.
‘The guidance also covers the actions to be taken when the protected disclosure relates to an organisation under the aegis of the department.
‘Regarding the Taoiseach’s period as minister for health, this matter was dealt with very effectively by the [then] minister of State for health, Kathleen Lynch, who had responsibility for disability services. She consulted regularly with [then] Minister Varadkar. They also met in person with one of the whistleblowers. A detailed review was conducted by a senior counsel, which resulted in the Farrelly Commission of Investigation being set up and which is currently underway.
‘In fact, it was [then] Minister Varadkar and [then] Minister of State Lynch who recommended to Cabinet that there should be a Commission of Inquiry established.’