Oireachtas committee witness warned of defamation possibility in evidence

A patient advocate was warned that he might be in breach of parliamentary privilege for naming a hospital at an Oireachtas hearing.

Jim Lawless carried on reading a statement despite a warning from the chairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee Jerry Buttimer that it might be defamatory.

Mr Buttimer told Mr Lawless that guests to the committee should not make comments against individuals or organisations that were not in a position to defend themselves.

Mr Lawless told the committee the neurological centre at Beaumont Hospital was not safe because the patients who have suffered a brain haemorrhage are denied access to emergency neurosurgical treatment.

'Grossly under-resourced'
He said the centre was "grossly under-resourced" with just 10 neurological intensive care beds. The centre needs 52 intensive care unit beds and eight high-dependency unit beds, he claimed.

Mr Buttimer responded: “The hospital is not here. We’re talking about national health policy. You may be making defamatory statements. Privilege does not allow you to do that.”

Mr Buttimer said Beaumont Hospital, the Health Service Executive and the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) would have to be called in at a later date to respond to some of the allegations made during a discussion on neurological services in Ireland.

Sen John Crown said Mr Lawless had provided "very plausible evidence" to the committee.

He described it as “absurd” that criticisms could not be made of public bodies such as the HSE, Hiqa or hospitals such as Beaumont Hospital. He believed publicly-funded bodies did not have reputational rights in the way that individuals did.