Government plans for hospital overspend review could run into legal obstacles
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Paul McDermott SC
Government plans to publicly identify individuals responsible for overspending at the National Children’s Hospital (NCH) may run into legal obstacles, The Irish Times reports.
Health Minister Simon Harris had told RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke Show that a forthcoming PwC review into the overspend would go “as far as it possibly can” in identifying individual, who could then be sanctioned by the Government.
However, barrister Paul Anthony McDermott SC warned it would “slow, though not impossible” for the review to make findings of individual accountability.
He saidd: “You have to be sure you are offering fair procedures to those affected if you are planning to name and shame. Everyone has a right to their good name, so you can’t do it on the back of an envelope.”
Professor David Kenny of TCD School of Law said an ongoing legal challenge by former Justice Minister Alan Shatter against the Guerin Report highlighted the dangers of such an approach.
He said the Court of Appeal’s ruling, upholding Mr Shatter’s case, indicated that “the PwC review, even though it is informal and non-statutory, would have to behave in a way that was fair to the people involved, where findings could be made against them”.
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