Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his team for coming to the joint committee. I very much welcome the recommendations made in the report and the speed of Dr. Tony Holohan in compiling it. The content is not surprising and, in essence, what the families concerned have been seeking. It is meritorious and the recommendations must be implemented in full. The concern of everybody in this room is the potential lack of confidence that all of these recommendations will be carried out. As the Minister said, reports have already been compiled on these specific cases, but they were concealed or kept from the families. They make for shocking reading. I have looked at the desktop incident review form for one of the babies. The parents were told it was a stillbirth, but the resuscitation of the child had been discontinued at 22 minutes. It is difficult to have faith in the capacity of the Department of Health and the HSE to fulfil its commitments and the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

The Minister referred to recommendation No. 11, the new national patient safety surveillance department, which I know Dr. Holohan has strongly recommended. One of the current concerns that I share with the families is that it will be dominated by high level staff in the HSE who have already failed in their duties. It is important that there be a strong degree of independence in order that patients throughout the country can trust in the process. That is very important, both for the parents and the public at large.

I am a little bemused by the assertion that we can continue to have full faith in the perinatal fatality figures, while at the same time accepting that the documentation and the collation of the figures have been flawed. The process has been flawed. When babies who have died are not recorded, that is a flawed system. I worry when I hear assertions being made by delegates before the committee that the statistics overall will not change and that we will continue to be one of the safest providers of maternity services. It is important to acknowledge that we do not know this.

Professor John Crown has described the ridiculously low level of consultant posts. That does not only affect maternity services; it also affects services across the board and this must be acknowledged.

I must accept the Minister's sincerity. He expresses regret and remorse and there has been tear shedding in the past couple of weeks in the Dáil Chamber, at the committee and elsewhere in the past. The reality is that senior figures in the HSE and the Department of Health were well aware of this issue having been approached by and met family members but nothing happened. The Minister has spoken repeatedly about accepting responsibility for the delivery of health services, saying the buck stops with him. I find it hard to reconcile that senior figures in the Department and the HSE were approached by and met the families, yet none of these staff brought the issue to the Minister's attention. Is that acceptable when the buck stops with him?