Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to speak on the report of the expert group. The report was due around this time but the sequence of events means discussion of it is happening against the backdrop of the death of Ms Savita Halappanavar in Galway University Hospital, which we know as "the Regional" in my part of the country. I must refer to that because Galway University Hospital is my regional hospital and I need to know, on behalf of my family and my constituents, that every procedure and process in the hospital is safe. I welcome the fact that HIQA and the HSE are conducting investigations but I would be more assured and confident if those investigations were independent and involved people who had no strategic interest or involvement and could make an independent assessment. There is still time for the Government perhaps to expand the HIQA remit. We have not heard the end of this case and, potentially, other cases. The people who depend on the hospital not just for maternity services, but for services across the board, need to know the fantastic staff who work there, particularly the nursing staff, are vindicated and have our confidence. Whoever is responsible for the sequence of events in those few tragic days needs to be held to account for whatever happened.

I am conscious of not linking what happened in Galway with the publication of the report. The report was due to be published and we would be having this debate regardless. As a representative for Mayo and the west, I would be failing in my duty to the people I represent if I did not put these concerns on the record.

We have had a far more respectful debate generally about this report and the options presented in it than we have had for some time on the entire issue of abortion. Space has been given to those with very strong opinions on either side to express them and I hope that continues, especially in this House.

One of my concerns is that we are having this debate on the publication of the report, the Government will come up with recommendations and then go to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to debate and discuss those recommendations. We would be far better off, however, if this went to the committee first and the various groups, particularly the medical groups, gave their presentations. I am looking forward to hear how the Medical Council views this report, along with the other medical groups that are made up of the people we entrust with decisions. I would like to hear them before being presented with the Government's decision.

I have absolute confidence that the Chairman, Vice Chairman and members of that committee will run the hearings in a way that will give us information in a non-partisan and neutral fashion. I need information, I am not a qualified medical practitioner and there are so many areas that confuse me that I still am at a loss how to make a judgment I can be happy with. It would be better if the committee hearings had taken place in a calm manner, with the various groups coming in to discuss this and then we debated what we had heard from those various groups. We could then make a judgment on whatever recommendations came from of this. That said, the hearings in January will be important and the committee must give as much time as possible to the hearings. I get a sense the Government is trying to rush this without proper debate on the report and what follows. There was a sense this could all be done and dusted by February. We must resolve it quickly but if we rush it, we will make bad decisions and end up with bad law. We must be far more careful.

The notion nothing was done for 20 years is wrong. Significant efforts were made to come to a consensus. I cannot allow the record of my late friend and colleague, Brian Lenihan, to be distorted in this regard. He chaired an all-party group in the House and brought recommendations forward. We had a referendum in 2002 and the decision reached in that referendum was not as clear-cut as people have presented it. There were conflicting interest groups campaigning for a "No" vote in that referendum so people voted "No" for very different reasons. Time was lost after the referendum, it was ten years ago, but the political process was so bruised by it that it is not so much there was a lack of courage but a wondering where we would go from there. I am not being smart when I say that, or defensive, but when we look at the amalgam of groups that combined to oppose that referendum, there was a genuine political sense of confusion about what to do. No matter what way the political process had turned, there would have been consequences for all sides, and not just political consequences.

We then had the hearings in the European Court of Human Rights and now we have the report of the expert group. I started by thinking whatever we do, we must respect maternal health. We have a strong record in this country but we cannot take it for granted. There have been three maternal deaths since September. There are three families tonight who were expecting the happiest time of their lives and that has now become a nightmare of proportions we cannot begin to understand. We cannot take the strength of our maternal health care system for granted and we cannot assume it will always be the way. I understand there may be a report that measures maternal safety next year that might not paint as rosy a picture. Whatever decision we reach as a legislature must be based on our having the maximum possible information and tonight we do not have that. I cannot say with confidence that I can reach a definitive position on the recommendations without seeing that information. It would be a disgrace is we as Oireachtas Members allowed this issue to go beyond this Dáil. We must have it finished by this time next year but we must not rush it if a few weeks in February would allow an informed debate where those of us without a medical background can ask questions that might seem stupid to medics but might help me find some clarity and security on these decisions.

Various claims have been made by both sides. We have had information meetings in this House in the last two days where eminent people directly contradicted each other. I listen to one person and he makes complete sense and then at the next meeting, someone who is equally qualified has the complete opposite view and he makes sense. Rushing this, then, for the sake of a few weeks is a bad idea. We will not do anyone any service if we rush this. We cannot allow it to go beyond next year but we must not put unnecessary deadlines in place because that will not serve the interests of the women or families of this country.

I ask the Government to give the committee time. We respect our committee system and we should give it the support it needs. Whatever resources the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children needs to do this it must be given so it will have the budget for the hearings and legal and medical advice available. This cannot be a normal committee session in the basement of Leinster House 2000 and I hope the Ceann Comhairle would hear the message that those hearings should allow for a specific budget so it can get the sort of advice committee members will need so that advice can, in turn, be made available to us.

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