JOINT COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND CHILDREN debate -
Thursday, 5 Jul 2012

Changes to Medical Practices and Procedures: Motion

Chairman

Mobile telephones must be turned off completely. Before dealing with the main item on today's agenda, I propose that we deal with a motion submitted by Deputy Regina Doherty. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The motion reads as follows:

That the Joint Committee on Health and Children request that an invitation be extended to the Medical Missionaries of Mary and the management of the North Eastern Health Service Executive to come before the committee to discuss the changes in practice and processes implemented, if any, arising from the conviction of Dr. Michael Shine for sexual abuse of patients and the removal of his medical licence by the IMO.

I now invite Deputy Regina Doherty to move the motion.

Deputy Regina Doherty

I would like to change the motion slightly. I apologise to the committee for the use of the word "conviction" because the terminology used when Dr. Shine's licence was removed from him is not the same as it would be in a court of law. Therefore I apologise for that, but it does not actually change the circumstances.

Chairman

What wording is the Deputy putting in place instead?

Deputy Regina Doherty

I propose that the Joint Committee on Health and Children request that an invitation be extended to the Medical Missionaries of Mary and the management of the North Eastern Health Service Executive to come before the committee to discuss the changes in practice and processes implemented, if any, arising from the case involving Dr. Michael Shine for sexual abuse of patients and the removal of his medical licence by the IMO. I make this proposal for two different reasons, but I first wish to focus on the HSE.

Chairman

Will the Deputy formally move the motion, please?

Deputy Regina Doherty

I move:

That the Joint Committee on Health and Children request that an invitation be extended to the Medical Missionaries of Mary and the management of the North Eastern Health Service Executive to come before the committee to discuss the changes in practice and processes implemented, if any, arising from the case involving Dr. Michael Shine for sexual abuse of patients and the removal of his medical licence by the IMO.

Chairman

Do we have a seconder for that motion?

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

I second the motion.

Deputy Regina Doherty

First, I would like the hierarchy or representatives of the HSE at the most senior level to attend the committee and explain to us, since the first allegations were made, what changes in practice have been implemented, what inspection levels are carried out and the frequency of same, to ensure that the likes of the allegations we are dealing with concerning 127 victims of Dr. Michael Shine could never happen again. Preventative processes should be in place in the hospital to ensure that it never recurs. Two weeks ago, guidelines on patient safety were released by HIQA to ensure that if there are any further changes to be made to practices, the HSE should be aware of them and prepare to implement them.

Second, I wish to request that the representatives of the Medical Missionaries of Mary attend the committee. Notwithstanding the insurance settlement that was reached yesterday by their insurance company, Allianz, they are apparently still on record as stating their opposition to that settlement. A number of years ago, a £1 million fund was set up by the Medical Missionaries of Mary as a condition of the sale of the hospital by the then North Eastern Health Board but I would like to ask them questions, given the allegations that had already been made at that stage. A fund was set up in the spirit of assisting, helping and dealing with the allegations, and particularly the victims of Dr. Michael Shine. To date, the Medical Missionaries of Mary have not engaged in any sincere form with any victims or any representative body of victims that may have contacted them. I have sent them a number of letters to which I have not even received an acknowledgement.

I am therefore requesting that they attend and explain to us why - as the fund was set up to engage with, rehabilitate and work for the consideration of the victims who had made the allegations against Dr. Michael Shine - they refused to engage with any of those victims for the last 20 years.

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

I endorse Deputy Doherty's proposition. I concur with her amendment, including the re-phraseology concerning one word. It is important for members to recognise that the developments of recent days concerning the €8 million set aside for 112 of the victims is not by any means the end of the story. Not all the victims have been provided for and the truth is what needs to be established. There is a major element of concern regarding the measures in place to guarantee that there can be no repeat of the abuses that were perpetrated by Michael Shine against innocent young children and young male adults. Some of them were repeatedly abused as they presented over their years of growing with different issues to be addressed in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

I have personally met a number of those victims. They will take no offence when I say that they have been deeply affected by their experiences. In many instances, they were fearful even to draw attention to what had happened to them. They were completely unable to understand what had happened to them. They explained to me that in some cases there was parental rejection and an inability by their parents to comprehend what had been taking place. It is only as time moved on and the victims became more aware of the world and its challenges that they understood what had happened to them. Some have been deeply and grievously hurt.

Only recently, in our deliberations on the report handed to the Minister by the Chairman, we have talked about the deep hurt that emotional abuse can create. This was not physical abuse in terms of scars that one can note on arms or legs but, just as with emotional abuse, there are deep mental scars for many of these victims - certainly for those I have met, including a significant number we have hosted here at the Houses of the Oireachtas on a number of occasions. They have been ably represented by Ms Bernadette O'Sullivan of the group Dignity 4 Patients. That group has done Trojan work in terms of advocacy and support for this particular cohort of victims.

It is important that we should address the Medical Missionaries of Mary who have more than a case to answer. In the words of the current Minister for Health, while in opposition, there is a need for the health authorities, the then North Eastern Health Board, which in more recent times is the HSE North-East-----

Chairman

I am sorry to interrupt the Deputy but I should inform Senator van Turnhout that there is a vote in the Seanad.

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

We should address the hospital administration, not only religious but lay, and the Garda authorities concerning the unbelievably long time it is taking to investigate these complaints. The medical organisation, of which Mr. Shine was a member, long ago deliberated and decided on his guilt. Accordingly, he was struck off yet the civil legal process has not yet held him to account. That is an incredible situation which has impacted on a succession of Governments' ability to make the appropriate decision to initiate the necessary inquiry. This is because such decisions are not taken easily when ongoing investigations by the Garda or ongoing deliberations by the Director of Public Prosecutions are in train.

It is important we have some sense of all of that. Accordingly, an inquiry is a most important need in this sad episode in Irish health care history. I endorse the proposition and respectfully appeal to all members to give it their full support.

Question put and agreed to.