Cancer scandal: HSE boss clings on
Junior Minister describes attempts to force O’Brien to quit as ‘knee-jerk’
HSE chief Tony O’Brien will not be stepping down following the CervicalCheck scandal – but will be taking retirement a month earlier than expected.
Junior Minister for Health Jim Daly yesterday revealed that Mr O’Brien will be taking four of his remaining 12 weeks as annual leave and will depart on July 4.
The minister also called attempts to force Mr O’Brien to quit a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction.
TONY O’Brien will retire a month early but attempts to force his resignation are a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction, Junior Health Minister Jim Daly has said.
Mr Daly said forcing Mr O’Brien to resign would be like taking someone ‘out the back’ to ‘shoot’ them.
He revealed that the HSE chief will be taking four weeks of his remaining 12 weeks as annual leave – meaning that he will depart his post on July 4.
This is despite the fact that Mr O’Brien promised at the Oireachtas Health Committee this week to use the remainder of his time to concentrate exclusively on the cervical cancer scandal.
Minister Daly confirmed yesterday on The Week In Politics on RTÉ One that Mr O’Brien’s commitment would now be onethird shorter because he was availing of annual leave built up since he became HSE director general five years ago.
But he said a motion of no confidence in Mr O’Brien, likely to be taken this week, was ‘a kneejerk reaction and politically opportunistic’. He added: ‘As if we would take people out the back and shoot them.’
Mr O’Brien has also stepped aside temporarily from his role as a director of American contraceptive giant Evofem, having joined its board in January.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald furiously responded that Mr O’Brien should resign following the scandal which was highlighted by Vicky Phelan.
‘Everybody who has followed this, with debacle after debacle focused on the health of women, and a deliberate strategy to withhold information, knows that the writing is on the wall,’ she said.
‘In a situation like this, where there is a scene of devastation for women and their families, there must be a calling to account. Mr O’Brien must be held to account.’
Asked about the accusation of political opportunism, Ms McDonald said: ‘I reject that assertion that there is anything opportunistic about this. The women who really matter in this, the women and their families, are on the record as saying they too believe Mr O’Brien must go.
‘The Taoiseach and [Health] Minister [Simon] Harris have to put their own preferences to one side and step up to the plate on this decision. We need to see the evidence of them demonstrating leadership and being in charge.’
She continued: ‘I would also say Mr O’Brien, whether he stays or goes, would be duty-bound to assist any inquiry.
‘The HSE’s behaviour under Mr O’Brien has not been one of not providing information; it has been one of withholding facts.
‘The most powerful testimony in this disaster has been from the women and their families and they are calling for the director general of that organisation to be held to account.’
Ms McDonald denied she was pre-empting the promised inquiry. ‘I am pre-empting nothing,’ she said. ‘Anybody who knows anything will know full well [there is] a culture of protectiveness and secretiveness within the HSE.’
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said Mr O’Brien should resign ‘with immediate effect’ and not be able to ‘dictate the terms’ of his own departure.
‘Mr O’Brien is the leader of that organisation and he has a responsibility to keep the Minister and the Department of Health informed, and I would think he has failed on most counts and the obvious thing he should do is resign,’ he said.
His colleague Thomas Byrne TD said Fianna Fáil had not seen the Sinn Féin motion and had taken no formal decision on it. His position, like that of party health spokesman Stephen Donnelly, was that Mr O’Brien should step down ‘without prejudice’.
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall said there had to be full redress for women not informed in time about faulty smear tests. She said her party didn’t have confidence in Mr O’Brien, but added: ‘We shouldn’t
‘Politically opportunistic’ ‘We shouldn’t fool ourselves’
fool ourselves. His stepping down will make very little difference. Politicians need to pass the necessary accountability legislation to change the culture.’
Independent TD Michael Collins also weighed in, saying: ‘The Government needs to ask Tony O’Brien to step down in order to increase accountability.’
Mr O’Brien told the Health committee last week that as HSE chief he recognised there had been a ‘cock-up’. However, he added: ‘I didn’t personally make that cock-up so I can’t take full responsibility for it.’
Mr O’Brien was unavailable for comment yesterday.