Despite his insistence, Tony O’Brien is defending the indefensible

Not informing a family that they were placing a vulnerable relative with people accused of the most horrific abuse is absurd and, in PAC members’ views, negligent, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Throughout yesterday’s five-hour emergency Dáil Public Accounts Committee meeting, HSE director general Tony O’Brien repeatedly insisted that he was not trying to defend the indefensible.

However, given his need to hold the party line and the severe legal constraints he is apparently working under, he instead did something almost as bad — he continually attempted to justify the decisions taken by officials throughout the decades-long foster care abuse case.