James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

Where is the senior Minister, the Minister for Health and Children? Today, when we find another scandal seeping out, this time about pregnant women and their in utero babies, there is no sign of the Minister doing anything except talking about legislation for sunbeds. We sought sunbed legislation for years but it is placed at No. 70 on the legislative list.

This is a classic case of the Minister manipulating the news to suit herself. There is no comment on the fact that there have now been three cases, with more emerging, of patients being told the devastating news that their unborn child is dead when the opposite was the case. If they had not the courage of their convictions, something that is unfair to expect of someone who has just been shattered by such devastating news, and the composure to demand a second opinion, those children would have been lost to them. That is completely unacceptable.

Last a week a great servant of the State, a paramedic, fell to his death out of an ambulance. What advice did the HSE offer? To duct-tape the doors. In 2010?

The HSE is out of control. How many months is it since Deputy Shatter first sought reports on the numbers of children who have died in care or who have come to the attention of the State? He asked for that information in February and we are only now getting this information.

The HSE is not fit for purpose and it should not be trusted with the care of our children. It has failed abysmally. The numbers are truly shocking. I can identify with the parents who have made the dreadfully hard decision to place their children in care in the belief the system will give the better care the parents cannot provide. They then find that the children did not get that care but ended up with the worst possible outcome, tragic death.

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