Leo Varadkar: HSE staff should reflect on decisions

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said it is up to health officials who were at the centre of the foster home abuse case in the South-East to consider calls for their resignations.

It comes as the child protection agency, Tusla, officially remains in the dark as to the exact nature of the allegations surrounding the abuse scandal. The agency has not received a copy of two internal HSE reports into the abuse allegations, despite those allegations first being raised in 2009.

Also, several senior Tusla officials are among those being called on to step aside, as they were in situ when failings in the care of a mentally disabled woman, Grace, took place. But because no concerns have been made known to the agency, no Tulsa official has stepped aside. The Fine Gael minister also said he first heard about the abuse scandal in late 2014 and later met whistleblowers who have highlighted concerns about care at the foster home.