Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I welcome the fact that the Minister has awoken to the need for her to show leadership on this issue. She took a long time to do this but I am happy that she is announcing an inquiry today. However, from listening to the Minister, it appears to me that the inquiry is more about the agenda of downgrading Ennis General Hospital, Nenagh Hospital and St. John's Hospital than about finding out what happened to these two unfortunate women and their families. Can the Minister clarify whether this investigation will examine what went wrong in the cases of Ann Moriarty and Edel Kelly? Will the inquiry study those cases specifically?

The Minister said that consultation with clinicians in the mid-west is ongoing but when will she engage with patients and the public in the region? When will the Teamwork report be published? This is all going on behind closed doors and the public is not supposed to know about it. We received one leaked document from Nenagh Hospital but we have no idea what is happening in the mid-west. As I said, I welcome the fact that there is to be an inquiry, but why did the Minister wait so long? Why did she not immediately ask HIQA to undertake an examination of what went wrong in the two cases concerned? Can the Minister clarify whether this inquiry will address the concerns of the two stricken families or whether it is about an agenda she holds, along with the HSE, regarding hospitals in the mid-west?

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