Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reaction, although he has not addressed any of the questions raised by Deputy Timmins. I appreciate that statistically our low rate of perinatal deaths compares well with other OECD countries and other parts of the European Union. What I have learned from my discussions with the families involved is that there are inaccurate figures, which must be of grave concern to the Minister because deaths of babies have essentially not been reported, collated or acknowledged. As Roisín Molloy indicated yesterday, these amount to babies "missing" from our national statistics, which is unacceptable. I appeal to the Minister to consider the possibility of putting a mandatory requirement in place so that hospitals cannot have the choice of opting in or out of reporting such deaths, as it should be mandatory. The policy of open disclosure appears to be working extremely well in parts of the United States of America but this should not simply be a policy aspiration and instead should be put in a legislative framework so that it must be implemented by the HSE and all maternity units around the country.

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