THE BAR Council has expressed serious concern that the Health Service Executive does not intend to establish a panel of barristers to act for it.
This is despite the fact that more than a year ago the HSE gave the council an undertaking that it would do so.
A HSE spokeswoman told The Irish Times it does not intend to establish such a panel. Instead it intends to maintain its existing arrangements with counsel who “will best meet HSE requirements” until the Legal Services Regulation Bill is enacted.
State bodies regularly engaging counsel, including the Office of the DPP, the criminal legal aid scheme and the Legal Aid Board, operate panels of barristers to represent them in court. They are intended to bring transparency to the State allocation of legal work.
In February 2011 the issue of a HSE panel was raised by the Bar Council with the HSE, following the setting up of a new tendering model for solicitors.
It met Seán Bresnan and Tara Downes of the HSE on March 7th, 2011, and they confirmed that the HSE intended to establish panels from which it would brief counsel within three to four months.
However, nothing happened and on October 20th Jerry Carroll, director of the Bar Council, wrote to Mr Bresnan.
There was no reply to this letter, and on November 30th he wrote again. Once more there was no reply. He wrote for a third time on December 21st, pointing out the Bar Council had had no response to its previous letters.
When there was still no response, on January 26th Mr Carroll contacted the chairman of the HSE, Michael Scanlan, stating he had been seeking a meeting with no success and asking that the executive contact him as a matter of urgency to arrange a meeting. This prompted a response and March 22nd was suggested as a date for a meeting.
On March 21st the secretary to the HSE board, Dara Purcell, said this date did not suit the HSE head of legal services, Eunice O’Raw, and she would get back to the Bar Council with an alternative date. On Wednesday, March 28th, Mr Carroll emailed Mr Purcell again to say that no one had contacted him about a new date.
Meanwhile, The Irish Times sent a number of questions to the HSE asking whether a panel was set up, what were the criteria for it and who was on it.
A spokeswoman for the HSE initially responded that the retention of counsel services would be substantially determined by the enactment of the Legal Services Regulation Bill.
Asked to respond to questions about the panel to which the HSE had committed, she said: “There is no panel in place. HSE uses counsel professionally capable of dealing with the brief and who will best meet HSE requirements.
“Until the enactment of the Legal Services Regulation Bill, the HSE will retain counsel arrangements already in place.”
Asked why there had been a change of policy since last March, the spokeswoman said: “In relation to the panel of counsel it was decided not to restrict the choice of counsel to a limited number of counsel but to be able to access those most suitable, and also to await the enactment of the Legal Services Regulation Bill to enable the HSE to take significant measures in its methods of retaining counsel, ensuring quality of service and essential cost savings.”
Asked to comment, Mr Carroll said: “I am amazed in the context of our efforts to meet with them. They gave an undertaking. We saw the panel as in the interests of the public in containing costs and promoting competition. This is what happens with other State bodies.”