James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The worst aspect of Thursday's meeting was the crystallisation it offered of what health care under the Minister's stewardship means. Nearly 600 women's files were reviewed and, as I understand it, the 97 that were identified were handed over to HSE officialdom for the women concerned to be contacted. Somebody made a decision on the Minister's watch to let these files pile up in a heap to be dealt with when he or she was good and ready, instead of identifying and contacting the women immediately. Even without an ounce of ethics, compassion or humanity, good logistics would dictate that these women should have been brought in as soon the problem was identified. Instead, they were all brought together into a health service that is labouring under cutbacks introduced by the Minister and cannot cope.

The worst aspect of this is the attitude it conveys. Women were effectively told that, yes, they may have a cancer in their breasts, that this was known to the HSE since September, but that no action was taken until November when those in control were good and ready — when the cohort and job lot were filled up and the box car was ready to move out of the station. Loyalty to the system has taken precedence on the Minister's watch over duty of care to the patient. It is a despicable, Orwellian concept and it has come about through the Minister's blinkered ideology. It is an ideology that seeks to undermine the public health service and drive people into private insurance so that more private hospitals can be built on private land. What we will have then is profit——

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