HSE not to contest claims for damages, Tony O’Brien tells PAC

The HSE would not contest any claims for damages from families or individuals arising out of the manner in which they were allegedly cared for at a foster home in the southeast, director general of the HSE Tony O’Brien has said.

Addressing the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, he said the HSE, which replaced the South Eastern Health Board (SEHB) in 2004, had "no effective defence" to the fact there had been failings in the care and protection of 47 highly vulnerable children and adults who spent time at the foster home in the southeast between 1983 and 2013.

Mr O'Brien was asked whether the fear of litigation was a factor in the initial failure of the HSE to apologise to the woman known as Grace, who was left in the home for 13 years after the SEHB had stopped all new placements there.

“The issue of litigation was not a factor. There is no effective defence the HSE can offer.” He said it would be up to the families of the children and adults who spent time at the home to contact the HSE about litigation.

Asked whether any assessment of the possible costs to the taxpayer of such cases had been made, Mr O'Brien said: "Not at this stage. That's a discussion we will have to have with the State Claims Agency. "

‘Financial abuse’

Chair of the committee John McGuinness said the young woman known as Grace, or those caring for her, would have been in receipt of €70,000 between 1983 and 2009.

A foster-care payment would have been paid to the foster parents until she was 18, and she would then have been in receipt of Disabled Persons Maintenance Allowance. He said it was clear Grace had been subject to “financial abuse” while in the home.

When Grace was finally removed, in 2009, “she had no belongings, no documents and no money. If that doesn’t set alarm bells ringing in an organisation I don’t know what will,” said Mr McGuinness.

The committee was told the two reports that had been compiled on the case – the Conal Devine report on the alleged abuse of Grace and the Resilience Ireland report which examined the case of the 47 children and adults who had been in the home, had cost the HSE "in aggregate €225,000".