The HSE chief executive has defended his organisation's reputation following claims from Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly that it was riddled with "excessive secrecy" and acting in its own self-interest.
Ms O'Reilly published her office's annual report for 2009 yesterday, which showed that over a quarter of complaints received were in relation to the HSE and its services.
She claimed her staff experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining access to HSE records.
Prof Brendan Drumm today much of the information sought was protected by the in camera rules relating to court cases. He said while the Office of the Ombudsman "obviously believes very strongly" it is entitled to receive the information, the HSE has received legal instruction such records cannot be released.
He said the Attorney General and Government have recognised "the legal constraints placed upon the HSE and were moving to change the legislation" to allow our staff to adhere to the law and then hand over those files".
Prof Drumm said the HSE did not "have a choice or an "a la carte approach to adhering to the law&". He said there were previous instances where staff had "inadvertently" handed over information to the Ombudsman's Office and the HSE ended up before the courts as a result.
The executive had to apologise for this and was "severely reprimanded by the judge in that situation for actually having given over information covered by in camera", he said. The HSE was "very clearly warned not to do it again".
Prof Drumm insisted HSE staff were committed to operating within the law. "To characterise people adhering to the law as instructed by the courts as a 'code of excessive secrecy' or - indeed - to go so far as to say that there is something 'rotten at the core of the system', is a really unfortunate use of language,"; he told RTE's News at One.
Regarding the publication of reports into the deaths of children in care, Prof Drumm said it was never intended that they would be published. "These reports are not published in any country in the world," he said.