Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach speaks about this like a man heading the Government for the past ten weeks and not the past ten years. What happened in Portlaoise is the worst in a recent series of misdiagnoses including a woman in Galway who was misdiagnosed twice, the case of Rebecca O'Malley in Cork and the cases in Barringtons Hospital about which we were supposed to have had an inquiry but which has not yet got underway fully.

What happened in Portlaoise? I do not want to hear about system failures or the Taoiseach to tell me he cannot talk about somebody being on administrative leave. Why not? A serious misdiagnosis occurred in Portlaoise and I want to know what happened. The Taoiseach should tell the House in plain language. What went wrong? Why were the checks not carried out? The women concerned at least deserve the courtesy of having it explained. When was it discovered in the hospital in Portlaoise and what was done about it at that time? We were told it was made public at the end of August and we are now told the Minister for Health and Children was informed on 20 August.

The Minister for Health and Children is reported to have stated she is considering a review of mammograms throughout the country. Is such a review being contemplated? I expect many women who have had mammograms during recent years must now be concerned about whether the results they received were accurate. Is a review being carried out elsewhere? Is there any reason to believe the type of problem which arose in Portlaoise might present in other hospitals?

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