Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have a choice with this report. We can take it now and use it as ammunition in whatever case we want to make, whether a political case around the budget or the delivery of resources, a case in the arguments that go on within the service about whether resources should go here or there, or in arguments between one institution and another. We can use it in those ways or we can take this report, as I do, in its totality and say that actions need to be taken at every level. We should not pick one and use it simply to go there or to make this or another argument. We should take the report in its totality, take the entire set of recommendations and determine that we are going to have them implemented. As I have said, there are implications in the report for people at every level in the health service, every level of government, every level of management and every level of delivery of service in the maternity services. The report needs to be implemented in its totality.

There are issues of resources. Of course there are; there always are. There are issues of the management and quality of the maternity services that have to be addressed. However, the report is very clear that there are also other issues. This report relates to a particular case, a particular institution, a particular service and one very tragic, awful case. There are implications in it for how the job is actually done, how the service is actually delivered in the ward and what actually happens when something goes wrong. This report is shocking in terms of what actually happened in the ward in this particular case. The report is also clear about where action needs to be taken and the paths that need to be followed in respect of taking action in the matter.

I do not believe it serves the health service in its totality well or the people who work in it, who deliver a high quality service and who work hard, diligently and professionally every day to ignore those aspects of the report. No aspect of this report should be ignored, including those which land at the headquarters of the HSE or the desk of the Minister for Health. They should not be ignored either.

As I believe there must be accountability both for what happened and for the implementation of the recommendation in these reports, I suggest the health committee of the House ask the relevant people, who have questions to answer arising from this report, to appear before it. In the first instance, they should so do to address specific questions that arise from the report and over time, to address the implementation of its recommendations.

Ireland has a public accountability system. That is how public accountability is delivered for the people who pay their taxes for the health service, those who depend on it and those who must access hospitals and who, as Deputy McDonald noted, in some cases travel long distances to get particular care in hospitals. This should be done. I do not believe this report should be let rest or let lie but there should be a resolve at every level to deal with its recommendations and implement them.

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