Donnelly orders HSE to allow meetings with disabilities minister
Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte said it was 'regrettable' and 'unfortunate' that her position had been 'undermined' and that a senior minister had to get involved. Picture: Jim Coughlan
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has directly intervened to order the HSE to hold 'on-the-ground' meetings with Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte amid concerns about how services for children are being delivered.
Ms Rabbitte has claimed senior HSE officials blocked her from holding individual meetings with those managing services for children with disabilities across the country as they feared what she might ask and were concerned about "the lack of control" they would have over such meetings.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said a full review of the Progressing Disabilities Services programme for children is required and sought a meeting with HSE chief executive Paul Reid on the matter.
Mr Donnelly contacted Mr Reid after it emerged that Ms Rabbitte was being continuously prevented from holding one-to-one meetings with each of the nine CHO disabilities managers and their teams working on the ground.
It is understood the HSE has now agreed to allow these monthly meetings to go ahead.
Ms Rabbitte said it was "regrettable" and "unfortunate" that her position had been "undermined" and that a senior minister had to get involved.
Asked why she thought she had been blocked, Ms Rabbitte said: "They might have feared, as well, what I might ask and the lack of control within that.
"And perhaps senior management would have seen my style, I don't apologize for my style, I'm paid to do a particular job. I always said when I went into the role of Minister for Disabilities I would advocate for people."
Ms Rabbitte first wrote to each of the nine disability managers in November seeking individual updates rather than joint monthly progress meetings on what her office described as "one of the most fundamental changes across the health service in how we deliver care to children".
Correspondence obtained by the revealed that the HSE told Ms Rabbitte that these meetings were “not operationally feasible”.
Ms Rabbitte said she had directly contacted each of the managers and a number had responded to confirm their attendance at these individual meetings. These were then stopped at a "very senior level" within the HSE.
"They believed it was not feasibly operational to have people away from their jobs but yet at the same time we could have them away to sit at a five-hour meeting," said Ms Rabbitte.
"So, I actually thought I was doing everybody a favour not to be bored out of their tree listening to everybody else's problems. I'd do it one by one. But it got stopped."
In the Dáil, Mr Martin said the Minister of State should always be in a position to meet any team in any location across the country after he was asked if he believed the "permanent government" is running the country and not the politicians.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said Ms Rabbitte had effectively been told to "get back in her box" by senior HSE officials at a time when disability services are in "crisis".
"We know different CHO areas perform differently and there is a variety of reasons for that. Some perform way better than others so it is perfectly legitimate for the Minister of State to seek those individual meetings.
"Who is running the country? Is it the Government or the permanent government?" Ms Murphy asked.
Mr Martin said there is a need to deal more comprehensively with disability services and a review is required.
"The Progressing Disability Services programme is, advertently or inadvertently, taking some resources from special schools, for example, which I do not think is an acceptable way to go. I have held this view for a long time," he told the Dáil.
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