Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's position is contradictory. I tabled Parliamentary Question No. 254 on 2 February. Effectively, I asked whether all pregnant women in Ireland had access to a foetal anomaly scan and for the number of foetal anomaly scans relative to actual births for every individual maternity unit in the State for the years 2015 and 2016 in tabular form. I will cite the HSE's response for the record, so I hope the departmental officials and the Minister of State are taking note. According to the response, foetal anomaly scanning is not available to all pregnant women in the public health system. The three maternity hospitals in Dublin and the units in Galway and Waterford provide 100% access, but most of the remaining units only provide some access to scanning, usually where it is clinically indicated or based on other agreed criteria.

In the context of the 1970 Act, every woman as of right should have the scan available to her regardless of whether it is clinically indicated. Also according to the response, the NWIHP does not currently collect the information that I had requested. We do not even have proper data on the number of scans performed in Ireland. Finding out took some work by OBGYNs and consultants across the State. Figures show that approximately 23,000 women, accounting for 36% of all births each year, are not able to access publicly funded anomaly scans. The consultants were happy to share these data. This is a matter of record within the Houses of the Oireachtas through the health committee.

The Minister of State's answer contradicts what the HSE and, based on their data analysis, the consultants are telling me. As a matter of urgency, we must reach the point whereby women in the regions in question - particularly in Cork, but not just there - have access to these scans, not in the third quarter of the NWIHP, but now.

I would like the Minister of State to reply to the effect that the Government, of which he is a part, will do its utmost to ensure that a process is put in place to recruit sonographers within the first or, at the latest, second quarter of this year. We are discussing public health. Were I the Minister of State, I would not rely on the Fine Gael Minister for an answer. I accept the Minister of State's point about taking this debate, but I am sure that he has a position on the matter as a member of the Government through the Independent Alliance. He has a responsibility for this issue as well, if I may put it so bluntly. It is not just a Fine Gael responsibility.

I feel strongly about this matter. If we are to be equal in our treatment of patients, every woman and child must, as a right and a public health issue, have access to this scan.

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