Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and for his kind words. Anyone who has met these women could not fail to be moved by the manner in which they were treated. In his reply, the Minister of State acknowledged the bravery, commitment and dignity they have shown and I wish to associate myself with those remarks. I welcome the Minister of State's statement that he will come back to me on access. My questions were not designed in any way to trip anyone up. Like the Minister of State, I want to be able to tell these women when this will happen. There is an acknowledgement of what happened to these women and there is also an acknowledgement on the part of the HSE and the Department that action must be taken. We are looking for a timeline for that action and a date by which the women will start to see a material difference. I spoke to the husband of a woman from the Minister of State's county, albeit not from his constituency, last week. That couple had just cobbled together enough money to get to England to have a full removal procedure there. The husband had spent five and a half years looking after his wife who is in agony and they could not wait. I would dearly love to be able to tell that man when his wife would get treated. That is all people are looking for. While the acknowledgement and the fact that some progress has been made are very welcome, we need to join up the dots now and set out the date on which women will have access to a scanner or the treatment abroad scheme. They will then be able to start the process of recovering. Some of those women will never recover, but we must ensure they can get as well as possible. I appreciate that the Minister of State will come back to me with further information. I will be happy to share that with the women and their representative, Ms Melanie Power.

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