Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I disagree with the Deputy's characterisation of it but I appreciate the point he is trying to make. It is a highly important issue that we all need to be alert to. This office has operated since day one as an independent office. It was an independent office that receives confidential information and then reports it to the HSE's CEO.
When it was reporting it as an independent office to the HSE's CEO, there was no chief social work officer responsible for reforming and driving reform in this area. There now is. Certainly the Minister can revert to the Deputy on some of the concerns he has raised, but I want to be really clear: the office remains independent. There has been no effort to subsume the office into the HSE's internal structures. What has changed, and the Deputy is correct on this, is the reporting structure. The confidential recipient now reports in their information to the chief social worker and had previously reported in to the HSE's CEO. That is being done from a place of wanting to reflect how-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26