Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What I have learned in recent days is that the only thing I can say with absolute 100% certainty is what I know. That is why I want to have a statutory inquiry to establish the exact answers to the Deputy's very important questions about who knew what, when and where. As the Deputy can imagine, in recent days and since last week I have spoken extensively with my departmental officials. I am very clear that they have informed me that they had no knowledge of a suppression of information or certainly anything that emerged in the national media through the discovery documents presented in Vicky Phelan's case. My officials will be before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and, rightly, should be asked questions about this issue.

The Deputy makes an interesting point. A clinical audit is really good. If one is the Minister for any Department and one hears that there is to be a clinical audit or audits, one welcomes it because a clinical audit is good. What happened was, as Deputy Michael Harty said, that the patient clearly was completely lost in the process. We see the most unedifying situation where doctors where writing letters about who should tell the woman in questin or whether they should tell her. What is even worse is that we now know that for many doctors there was not even an exchange of correspondence. Information was simply put on file, with the paternalistic view that Ms X or Ms Y did not actually need to know the information. We need a statutory review. Of course, we expect doctors to exercise their judgment, but I would certainly expect doctors with any information on my health or my health files to tell me. That did not happen and it points to the need for this House to take very practical action on the issue of mandatory open disclosure.

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