Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted by the comments of the Ombudsman. I sit on the Joint Committee on Health and Children and representatives of maternity hospitals and parents who have lost babies have appeared before us to give evidence.

What was most hurtful was that nobody spoke to them or admitted guilt. I listened to a programme on radio while travelling to work today and a solicitor was advising people that if they were involved in an accident, they should not admit liability. That is probably the case in the hospitals also where people might be protecting themselves. My difficulty with that is that if someone was damaged at birth or involved in a car accident, it might be ten years down the line by the time he or she gets compensation. The families needed that money for rehabilitation and other medical expenses but the money was not available at that stage. Mr. Tyndall's points in that regard are excellent.

Regarding the particular hospital, its representatives gave evidence that it had a type of management board that dealt with the complaints and yet it failed miserably. When the Health Service Executive, HSE, representatives were giving evidence before the committee, nobody mentioned that the Ombudsman had been in and that it had agreed a protocol. I did not hear about that until today. What is the reason for that information deficit? Why was that not said?