Sir, – The massive award to “Grace”, the profoundly intellectually disabled woman who suffered as a result of the HSE abdicating its responsibility to her, sends a strong signal to the HSE to put its affairs in order. The money should ensure that Grace will never be neglected again. A disturbing part of the case is that the judge felt it necessary that a HSE official take an oath in court that the HSE would abide by the judgment. It is extraordinary that one arm of the State, the courts system, mistrusts another arm, the HSE, so much that this oath was required. I hope that, as well as all the necessary care facilities, the expenditure of the award by the HSE will be closely monitored by an outside panel, and spent exclusively on Grace. – Yours, etc,
AOIFE LORD,
Tankardstown,
Co Meath.