PAC to send foster home abuse claims to Garda

The Public Accounts Committee is to forward allegations of abuse at a Waterford foster care home to gardaí and to the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, amid concern that health chiefs have taken no action.

Fri, 15 May, 2015 - 01:00

Juno McEnroe

There have already been cross-party calls for an inquiry into the HSE’s handling of claims that up to 40 intellectually disabled children and young adults were sexually abused by a foster care family over two decades.

PAC chairman John McGuinness yesterday said information the committee had received and evidence in hearings would now be forwarded to gardaí. The HSE had been too relaxed looking into the claims, he argued.

Mr McGuinness said the transcript of a committee hearing should be forwarded to gardaí.

“It is extremely lax on the side of the HSE and the gardaí that this matter is not being dealt with in a more open way, because there are 30 or so young adults that have been affected by what happened there and there’s no sense from the HSE that there is an urgency about this and there is a desire to resolve it,” he said.

The PAC chairman said the claims had been made under protected disclosure but still no action had been taken.

The HSE has been accused by PAC TDs of essentially investigating itself, due to the fact that former HSE employees were hired to investigate claims of the alleged abuse at the Waterford home. The HSE has rejected the allegations.

PAC’s John Deasy yesterday proposed that there should be a new law barring former HSE employees from bidding for such contracts.

“It’s clear that the HSE are a bad actor when it comes to tendering within the procurement guidelines,” said Mr Deasy. “We should put a forward proposal to the minister [for health] to change this.”

However, comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy said there could be a problem in law barring someone who had legitimately set up a business and should be allowed bid for a contract.

PAC also agreed yesterday to ask judges to appear before the spending watchdog to answer questions about how funds held on behalf of wards of courts or minors are managed.

Over €1.3bn is held in investment funds managed by the courts under the Courts of Justice Investment Committee. The committee includes judges as well as court officials. The PAC has heard claims that huge sums have reduced in value during the recession. In one case, a fund of €510,000 was reduced to €280,145 over number of years. Many people who are made wards of courts become so due to injuries or accidents.

Independent TD Shane Ross said it was important that the group that managed the funds be held accountable. While the comptroller and auditor general told TDs he had no power to scrutinise how the funds were spent, it was agreed that a request would be sent for them to come before PAC.