Organ inquiry closure due to costs

The Government closed down the official inquiry into the organ retention controversy because it had missed successive deadlines and the cabinet no longer believed that further public expenditure could be justified, The Irish Times has learned.

The official file on the investigation reveals strong tensions in recent months between the inquiry and the Department of Health on a number of fronts including staffing levels and on revised terms of reference.

The inquiry, which was headed by senior counsel Anne Dunne for five years, was closed down by the Government at the end of March. The Cabinet decided last week not to publish its report. It has asked medico-legal expert Deirdre Madden to draw up a new report based on information collated by the Dunne Inquiry.

The file reveals that the inquiry was concerned that it had learned from a newspaper report that it was to be closed down in March.

The inquiry sought additional staff and a time extension until next year to complete its work. This was rejected by the Department of Health.

In a letter to Ms Dunne at the end of November the Minister for Health Mary Harney also rejected proposals by the inquiry that the issue of the removal of pituitary glands should be left out of a promised report on paediatric hospitals and dealt with in a separate document.

On December 23 the Minister told Ms Dunne that she was "most perturbed to hear" that the inquiry did not intend to produce the report on paediatric hospitals by the end of the year.

She said that the manner in which the inquiry learned that it was to be closed down was "regrettable" but that it had been on notice of the time-scale involved for quite some time.

The Minister acknowledged that the Government had "implicitly" amended the terms of reference by deciding to close down the inquiry in March.

At the end of December and in January, Ms Dunne sought details of the new terms of reference and expressed concern that she had received no substantive replies from the department.

"Furthermore I am of the view that it is unfair that the Department of Health continues to issue press releases criticising this inquiry when much of the delay for which it is criticised is outside its control", she wrote.

She also advised that "it will not be possible for me to provide a report by 31st March unless proper and sufficient staff is available immediately to me".

On February 22nd Ms Dunne wrote to the Minister expressing concern at the "continued failure" to address matters raised in eight letters particularly related to the terms of reference and matters including staffing.

She said that it was "quite inexplicable" that the decision to close the inquiry had been taken without consultation, however she said that "of greater concern is the position that I am not being informed, as I ought to have been long ago, of my position and that of the inquiry in respect of the terms of reference."

The following day the Minister replied: "In light of successive failures to meet deadlines and the absence of substantive progress to date on the subject matter of the inquiry, the Government does not believe that the further expenditure of public funds on legal and other expenses can be justified."