Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is important that there is proper negotiation on the price at an early stage so that we get the current price and not multiples of that price. We would then be trying to make decisions on that cost, which would be crazy.

I wish to question the Minister on the audiology failures in counties Mayo and Roscommon. I know a number of actions have been taken on that, but again we do not know who was responsible or whether the governance was put in place for it and there are further difficulties. The Minister has provided a long written reply on what has happened in respect of the Department of Health, medical cards, employment affairs and social protection and education and skills. There are still shortfalls in the system. I hope this committee will have hearings in the new year to hear about the impact the audiology failure has had on the families involved. We need to get to the bottom of the matter. Why was the governance not in place and is it in place now? If so, could it ever happen again? Some 49 children were affected.