Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
============================================================

Richard O'Donoghue (II), Limerick County

Last week I spoke in this House about Jessica Sheedy, who died in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, and the case of Dr. Lal, who admitted to 13 counts of misconduct. That has been dealt with on its own. I see the Minister for justice is here as well. I also need his help on this. Today I want to talk to the Taoiseach and the Minister about the hospital management, who used non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, to silence people and to avoid accountability. I am aware of people in UHL who came forward with concerns well prior to Jessica Sheedy's operation. Those people were victimised, their careers would not excel and they might have to look for references. They were used to sign non-disclosure agreements. This is wrong.
Under the Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024, NDAs are void when victimisation occurs, including harassment, sexual harassment or discrimination in relation to employment. Are those people who came forward in whatever hospital around this country protected under the 2024 Act where patients and the public were put at risk and NDAs were used to withhold information from inquiries and investigations? Why were the public and patients put at risk under people who were not competent to do their job? I have full respect for people in all parts of the medical profession who are competent at doing their job. Sometimes a mistake happens, but you learn from the mistake; you do not cover it up. Eight years it took to get the information out, for somebody to admit guilt - eight years. How many more non-disclosure agreements have been signed to prevent the course of justice? That is what I want to know. Will these people be fully protected under this Act if they come forward now? I do not want to hear, like others say, "You are 100% protected". We have heard that before where whistleblowers were involved. This time I need to know from the Government and I need an official response.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04