James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I join with the Minister in offering my sympathy to those who have been affected. This is yet another scandal which was left uncovered and unanswered until Melissa Redmond and her husband Michael decided to go public with it. I commend them on their courage in doing that. Many women have come forward since then. Some 250 telephone calls have been made to the helpline by women and their families since this issue arose.

Does the Minister know how many cases will be included in the HSE review and if not, when will she know? Will she call on the Health Information and Quality Authority to conduct an urgent audit of antenatal and maternity services, including the standard and safety of equipment, staff workloads, care protocols and training of personnel? It should be borne in mind that there are only between 100 and 120 foetal assessment machines in the country. It is farcical for HSE representatives to suggest, notwithstanding they did nothing for six months about replacing the equipment that had been described as "fatigued", that retaining a professional sonographer four hours a day five days a week will be the solution to this problem. There are 3,500 deliveries in that maternity unit each year and, by international standards, it should have at least two, if not four, full-time sonographers. When will the terms of reference be made available to us by the HSE? Why will there not be a truly independent investigation by HIQA?

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