Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

What has been exposed at Tallaght hospital is perhaps the best example of the national failure of this Government. It is one of the best examples of the abject failure of the Minister for Health and Children to live up to the responsibility for immediate care that was given to her following her appointment to that position. It is unconscionable that a number of people - more than twice the population of County Leitrim - should not have their X-rays read over a four year period. It smacks of a gigantic cover up that only those who had problems would be informed. We now know that one person has died, another is being treated for cancer and there is a possibility that many people are walking around with undetected tumours or other problems because X-rays have not been read by radiologists.

This follows a long litany of incompetence and disaster presided over by the Government in the Department of Health and Children and in other Departments. Will the Minister come into the House today to answer questions about this? Is she in New Zealand a week before St. Patrick's Day? Is the Taoiseach satisfied that she took appropriate action when it was brought to her attention by the chief executive of Tallaght hospital last December and flagged by GPs last summer?

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