Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The personal testimony of Emma Mhic Mhathúna was quite devastating, as everybody has said. I listened to it in my office. I will never forget it. The impact of this scandal on families across this country is causing enormous public distress.

As a father and husband, I can only think of my own wife and children. I ask Members to put themselves in a similar situation. Many of us in this House are, I presume, thinking the same thing and considering the distress being caused. I say to Members of all parties and none that, politically, this scandal is a stain on all of us and on our health service.

This morning, at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts that I chaired, the chief executive of the HSE revealed that he had a memo on this matter dating from early 2016 and that it was possibly sent on to the Department of Health. We will receive the memo in the next hour and it will add to the issue of accountability, which, as we all know, it is necessary to deal with.

There is another and greater priority here, namely, what we will do immediately for these women. It may take time, but there will be accountability in the health service and politically. The State has committed to providing assistance to Vicky Phelan. Will the Minister make a commitment that all women, including Vicky and Emma, who have received terminal diagnoses will have absolutely all possible treatments and supports paid for by the State? This is one occasion on which we actually need to provide a blank cheque to people in light of the circumstances in which they find themselves. We are aware of the issues of public confidence, the phone lines and the very large number of calls that many people are trying to deal with. I put this to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, previously. He has taken on board many of my suggestions over the past week. I want the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to take on board this as well in order to address these immediate concerns. To restore public confidence, the Government should authorise a random sampling of smear tests carried out in the past three years. It should commit to this so that we can get the statistics and results in order to give public confidence a boost and ensure that women can at least know that the sampling showed statistically what has happened in the past.

Primary human papillomavirus, HPV, testing will be introduced later this year in respect of CervicalCheck. There have been calls by experts - I have spoken to a number of them - for this to be fast-forwarded. From these consultations, I know that this will not happen this year unless money is put aside for labs and IT systems. The Minister is the man with the chequebook. Will he ensure that the money in this case is ring-fenced in order that the HPV version of the testing can be brought forward as quickly as possible this year?

Finally, Vicky Phelan has requested that a commission should consider in public the issues about which we all know. Section 11 of the 2004 Act provides that a commission shall conduct some of its investigations in public. It is clear that the law for commissions of investigation provides for public hearings under this section of the Act, whereby victims such as Vicky Phelan, Emma Ní Mhathúna and anyone else would be able to speak. Can we stop beating around the bush on this? Will the Minister confirm that the Government will allow this to happen?

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