Irish Examiner view: State treats citizens as legal foes

Shane Corr, a senior civil servant at the Department of Health, went public with details of the secret dossiers. 

It is welcome news that the Taoiseach is to seek a policy review following revelations by a whistleblower that the Department of Health gathered sensitive, personal information about children with autism, without their knowledge or consent, to add to long-dormant legal files. That practice amounts to state surveillance of the most cynical kind.

Shane Corr, a senior civil servant at the department, showed the kind of courage and scruples that are absent from the heart of Government by highlighting how his own department secured confidential medical and educational information about children involved in legal cases against the State.