Darragh O'Brien (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this motion. All of us will agree that the cases which have emerged in the media - those of Melissa Redmond and other women who were incorrectly diagnosed as having miscarried - have led to a great deal of anger and fear and caused many questions to be asked. My heart genuinely goes out to Melissa and the other people who have endured such traumatic experiences. Like many other Deputies, I commend Melissa on following her own instincts and, most importantly, helping to publicise this matter. The news of this case will have caused great upset to women who have recently suffered miscarriages. I do not doubt that some women are now second-guessing the medical treatment they received and wondering if their miscarriages were also misdiagnosed. In recent weeks, people in my family have questioned the advice they were given. That is not a good position to be in.

I understand the helpline that was established in the wake of these revelations has received over 350 calls. Given that over 70,000 children are born in Ireland every year, it is clear that these cases do not represent the experiences of the vast majority of pregnant women in this country, thankfully. As Deputy O'Rourke said earlier, we have high-quality maternity services by international standards. Our rates of infant and maternal mortality are low by comparison with other countries. Approximately 20% of confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriage in the first 12 to 14 weeks. The 14,000 miscarriages that take place in Ireland each year are hugely distressing experiences for women. Early pregnancy units are in place to provide care for women who experience pain or complications in early pregnancy. I hope we will not be in this position again in a number of years' time. Serious lessons need to be learnt from this case. We are talking about the lives of children and the physical and mental well-being of mothers and their partners or husbands. While this issue relates predominantly to mothers, obviously, prospective fathers have also had to deal with great upset over recent weeks.

The Oireachtas needs to ensure that standards and procedures are in place to ensure this never happens again. The HSE and the Department of Health and Children have agreed that a series of measures will be put in place to that end. The miscarriage diagnosis review team, which was alluded to earlier by Deputy Fleming, will look back at cases in which a diagnosis of miscarriage was made in error over the last five years. It will also seek to determine the causes of such cases, examine the responses to them and make recommendations to Dr. Barry White, who is the national director of the HSE's quality and clinical care unit. The team's report will be published to ensure full openness and transparency. As Deputy Fleming said, it is important that there is a strong patient focus in this regard. We need this process to be as open and transparent as possible to ensure people are satisfied that what happened in these terrible cases of misdiagnosis can never again happen on such a widespread basis. I will not go through the steps that have been taken by various Governments to improve services over the years. I am sure all Members of the Oireachtas are keen to extend their sympathies to the women and families who have been affected by this matter. We need to make sure it does not happen again. I do not see this as a politically divisive issue - it is about life, children, mothers and families. I hope the review team's work ensures that as this House moves on, it will never again be in a position to have to discuss such a terrible situation.

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