Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Fianna Fáil I welcome the comprehensive report by Dr. Scally. It is fair to say that it is a more comprehensive report than many of us thought it might be, including those of us who agreed the terms of reference. Dr. Scally and his team deserve huge credit for very robust and professional work done in a pretty short period.

This came about because of the bravery of some extraordinary people, including Vicky Phelan, Emma Mhic Mhathúna and Stephen Teap. The types of improvements we hope to see are entirely down to their bravery in standing up and in not being forced and bullied into signing non-disclosure agreements by third parties, so I acknowledge the work they did and the role they played. I am particularly happy to see that Dr. Scally recorded the testimonies of the women and their families. This is something there is not enough of and we need to reflect on the fact that testimony is vital. It is vital in areas such as institutional abuse, it was vital in this area on non-disclosure and we all heard some of the testimony. It brought to life the types of challenges these women and families have been dealing with.

Fianna Fáil supports all 50 recommendations. We will work as hard as we can with the Government to see those recommendations implemented as soon as possible. In doing so, however, we have to see a step change in how things are implemented in all aspects of CervicalCheck. In spite of the fact that the Government was briefed on this and told that it was going to blow up in public, it was still allowed to blow up in public, which created widespread fear.

The Government promised these women an awful lot of supports, some of which are still not in place. Huge frustration and struggle has been endured by these woman and their families because the supports were not put in place when they were told they would be. The women were told by the Taoiseach and by the Minister that they would never have to go back to court. I raised this in the House with the Tánaiste, and on the morning I raised it, Emma Mhic Mhathúna was back in court. Since the promise had been made, this was her fourth time in court. Even last week we saw it. I understood that the women and their families were promised they would be briefed before the report was published. I found that I and other Members of the House were being briefed and a very small number of the 221 affected women were briefed. The women and the families together should have been briefed by Dr. Scally before anyone in this House or the media and before publication, but this did not happen. I am not saying this to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to score political points. I say it because I do not believe the implementation has been there. I have cited real examples of where I believe the Government has dropped the ball with regard to these women. We will work with the Government, and we want to work with it, but we have to start delivering on time and according to the promises that were made.

I will turn now to the commission of inquiry. We would like to see the women and the families listened to. This whole thing comes back to other people deciding what the women should or should not be told about their own health. Once given time to reflect on the recommendations in the report, let us listen to the women. I would like to see face-to-face briefings, for any of the women who want them, with Dr. Scally and his team. Let us listen to the questions they still have after reading the report. Let us talk about the different options for getting those answers. Whatever the women and their families want to do, let us do that, regardless of whether we think it is the right method. Let us for once do just what they want and put them at the centre of this.

The medical community needs to reflect on some of these issues, as do the Members. If we can implement these recommendations, not just for CervicalCheck but across the HSE, we would see a lot of improvements in governance, patient safety, patient voices and clinical voices in the future.

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