Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

It will be published as soon as possible. I have received the report on which I am receiving legal advice. I must bring it to the Government and then publish it.

There have been inquiries into events at hospitals in Ennis, Galway and Portlaoise, the Rebecca O'Malley case, events at Barrington's hospital and radiology services in the north east. We have also had the Maureen Harding Clark report and the redress scheme in that regard. That inquiry was initiated by my predecessor, Deputy Micheál Martin, now Minister for Foreign Affairs. This has been an unprecedented era of inquiries. When I met members of the group last week, my heart went out to them. I was very touched by what they had said in a very genuine way. However, it was a rushed meeting because I had to come into the House for a debate on a different matter, for which I apologised to the group. It presented me with a submission. I told its members I wanted to genuinely consider it and suggested a period of three weeks because they asked how long I thought it would take. I said there were many issues to be considered. We have an independent courts system, although we may not like the outcome of court decisions. We have an independent Director of Public Prosecutions, all of which has been mentioned in the debate. That is outside my remit, but the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will address these issues tomorrow evening. I told the group that I would have to talk to my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and the Attorney General and consult my Cabinet colleagues. I said this genuinely and it is repeated in the amendment to the motion. I am not in a position, nor would I be, to initiate an inquiry, unless I believe issues would arise from which we could learn with a view to implementing changes. If I was to do this, I would have to have the authority of the Government. Inquiries are not inexpensive and I am not choosing the difficult economic environment to stand in the way of an inquiry. However, the Leas Cross inquiry cost €2.1 million and that was held with one sole member who did an outstanding job. Therefore, inquiries are not inexpensive and they are harrowing for those who participate. However, if they are warranted, we will have them, provided we can learn from them.

During the period 1995-96 this was a dysfunctional hospital, about which there is no question. We know what happened; Maureen Harding Clark told us in her report. She spoke about the pervasive culture in regard to consultants. She stated there was an incredibly pervasive culture of acceptance of and compliance with consultant activity. That was the culture in that era. Mr. Shine was a member of the health board which had functional responsibility in the area and he remained on it after he had been suspended from the hospital, although I am not certain for how long. We have learned much about what went on in the hospital and are now in a different era. It is now a State hospital; it was not at the time. It was subsequently taken over by the health board. At the time a sum of money was set aside because, clearly, the authorities were aware of the allegations which went back 34 years. I believe the first complaint related to events in 1970 or so. Mr. Lennon, currently a doctor in the hospital, had serious things to say about its management, how these matters had been dealt with and so on.

In many respects we are now in a different era. The provisions relating to whistle-blowing have been law since 1 March this year. Not only do they give much protection to patients, they also protect staff, in particular. I have no doubt that the staff who knew what was going on and who could not have been happy about it were afraid to make complaints. That era of fear is gone. Staff are now fully protected under law in the Health Act 2007. The provisions were enacted on 1 March this year and have been greatly welcomed by representative organisations of staff working in the health care system. They provide a great guarantee for the future that complaints can be made and that staff will be protected, no matter who they are. We should remember what was happening in the maternity unit. It took a midwife who had come from another jurisdiction in which she had worked in a different environment to blow the whistle, even though there were many others who had to had known what was happening was wrong. A simple audit would have shown that the rate of peripartum hysterectomies was approximately 200 times higher than that in the National Maternity Hospital at the time.

We have a new Medical Council. In the past few days I read the debates which took place in the House at the time and the then Labour Party Deputy, Brian Fitzgerald, spoke about the need to change the way medical practitioners were regulated. A new modern Bill was enacted in 2007 which provided for a lay majority. The fitness to practise committee also has a lay majority and must hold its hearings in public, unless there is a very good reason not to do so. Mr. Shine was obviously tried — if that is the appropriate word to use — or examined under the 1978 Act, which is why the hearings were held in private. This will greatly assist in boosting patient confidence in medical regulation and be very helpful to health care professionals, doctors, in particular, who are inevitably damaged when one of their colleagues is struck off the register for issues of this kind.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, will deal with all of the new child care provisions in place. We live in an environment which is incredibly different from that in 1995-96 when these issues first came to light. The deference to which the Ryan report made reference in regard to religious orders manifested itself in this hospital also. It was a hospital run by a religious order and in which, as Judge Maureen Harding Clark stated, huge deference was shown to consultants who could not be wrong and to whom nobody seemed to be prepared to stand up. I may criticise issues about the way things happened, but I do not criticise doctors, nor have I ever done so. How two doctors, Mr. Neary and Mr. Shine, could have betrayed their patients for so long and in such a serious fashion without anyone crying stop is incredible. I certainly hope that era is over.

I will revert to the group in the first instance after I have had an opportunity to engage with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Attorney General. I have already spoken to the Garda Commissioner on these issues and I understand the Garda is investigating new complaints that have arisen. I will meet the group as I promised, and it will not be a case of just writing them a letter. I will meet with them when we have had an opportunity to discuss all the issues at stake in this case.

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