Dáil debates

Thursday, 19 January 2017

12:15 pm

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I entirely echo the Tánaiste's sentiments in respect of the screening process. I return to my initial point. This is why public confidence is so essential. For the uptake to increase and therefore for danger to citizens' health to decrease, people must have confidence in the system.

These events date back to October 2014. This has been a long running saga. A number of people placed their trust and confidence in that screening programme and were misdiagnosed or not diagnosed. In any event they left in full confidence that they were hale and hearty only to discover after the fact that was not the case.

The Tánaiste made the point that the misdiagnoses can be traced back to a single clinician. It should be said that the medic in question contests the findings of the report. It is important to put that on the record of the Dáil. People who have heard the news from Wexford General Hospital ask if they can have confidence in the programme, and also who takes responsibility for this. At the end of the day when the reports are written and the audits are done, where does responsibility lie? Is it with an individual? Is it the stresses and strains of an under-resourced system? Citizens need answers to these questions.

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