Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply and acknowledge the fact that he has met the families concerned. From the tone of his reply it genuinely appears he has a deep personal interest in dealing with this case. The four baby deaths cannot be undone, as the Minister indicated, and the families can now grieve properly as they begin to know what happened. Perhaps the deaths will not be in vain if some good comes from the system changing for the better so as to benefit other families and expectant mothers. That is really all that can be achieved at this stage.

I want the Minister to support the maternity unit in Portlaoise with whatever resources and equipment are required for the staff on the front line. I will not overly labour the point but it is ironic that around the day of the programme's airing, the Department issued the 2014 budget for the Portlaoise hospital, cutting it by €2.76 million. That was announced within hours of the programme airing on television. That is not the proper response, although I will not play party politics.

I have some little concerns about the Minister's comments. The Chief Medical Officer is to complete a report, as is HIQA, and the Department is leading the development of a code of governance. The national clinical effectiveness committee is to consider another issue and there was also mention of a national policy launch on open disclosure. Everybody seems to be doing something, but perhaps the Minister can take personal charge of the process. When everybody is doing something, nobody is held responsible at the end of the day. We want to learn from this.

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