Watt called RTÉ boss ahead of TV exposé on dossier

THE Department of Health’s top official personally phoned the head of RTÉ shortly before the station broadcast whistleblower claims his department covertly gathered confidential information about children with special needs who sued the State.

Acting secretary general Robert Watt is understood to have voiced concerns to RTÉ’s director general Dee Forbes on Thursday that material relied upon for the report was supplied in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

RTÉ went ahead with the broadcast that night.

The allegations yesterday prompted Taoiseach Micheál Martin to order the setting-up of a multi-disciplinary team to consider the issues raised.

A spokesperson for RTÉ said it had no comment on the conversation. Mr Watt did not respond to a request for comment submitted by the Irish Independent through the department’s press office.

Shane Corr, a civil servant in the department, went public after discovering confidential medical and educational information had been gathered by the department about children with special needs who took legal actions to get appropriate educational supports.

According to the whistleblower, sensitive information on their siblings and their parents was gathered as part of a strategy to defend lawsuits. This was said to have been done in over 40 dormant cases involving children with autism.

A template letter indicated the department looked for service updates from doctors, psychiatrists and social workers on the children and their families.

It was said to have explicitly stated that neither the plaintiffs nor their solicitors were to be contacted about the request.

After Mr Corr made a protected disclosure last year, the department commissioned a senior counsel to review the matter.

According to the department, the senior counsel found the practice to be entirely lawful, proper and appropriate. No breach of the Data Protection Acts was identified and the review did not recommend any change to the department’s approach.

The Data Protection Commissioner is looking into the matter and has supplied a list of questions to the department. The Medical Council said it was “greatly concerned” about some of the allegations.

Department of Health officials are to be asked to appear before an Oireachtas Health Committee to answer questions. Mr Watt is expected to be among the officials. The committee is also seeking for the senior counsel’s report to be made available.

The department did not respond to queries asking if it would release the report or the terms of reference for it.

It also failed to respond to queries about the extent of the knowledge the minister and junior ministers had about the practice detailed by the whistleblower.

In an open letter on the department’s website, Mr Watt said the department had never unlawfully held sensitive medical and educational information of children involved in dormant court cases.

“The Minister for Health is regularly named in litigation, and one of the duties of the Department of Health is to manage cases effectively on behalf of the State, which sometimes includes review of sensitive information in order to settle or defend a case,” he said.

He said the department’s overall mission was to improve the health and wellbeing of people and to protect the most vulnerable in society.

“We take the allegations extremely seriously and the Taoiseach has today announced that a multi-disciplinary team will now be formed to consider the issues raised with the aim of understanding fully what happened here,” said Mr Watt.

Irish Independent