Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When Vicky Phelan stood outside the High Court in April last year, following her decision not to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding her case, she changed Irish healthcare provision forever. Her campaign for justice since then has been one of the most courageous any of us has ever seen and certainly the most courageous I have ever seen. When she, along with her fellow campaigner, Stephen Teap, attended the Committee of Public Accounts a few weeks later, they opened a scandal to us that was unprecedented, complex and deeply troubling. I swore to them that day walking back to their taxi that I would do all I could to help them and I hope I have honoured that.

We, as a State, are today acknowledging that we let down the women of Ireland. We let down the women affected by the cervical cancer scandal and we let down their families. It is a watershed moment. I thank the Taoiseach for listening to the continuous requests that I and many others made for this day to happen and for meeting the 221+ group and their patient representatives on a number of occasions recently. It also helped him to understand that this day was necessary.

I acknowledge all of the women in the Gallery and their families. I also acknowledge all of the young people who will look back on what we are saying today. They have been affected by it but they are that little bit too young to fully understand it. I am particularly thinking of Noah and Oscar Teap. This record will be there for them and many other young people who have been affected. It will record the mistakes that deprived many of them of a loved one.

An apology today will not bring back any of the women who have passed on, including Emma Mhic Mhathúna, change the terminal diagnoses others have, prevent the fact that some women, such as Lorraine Walsh, cannot have children, or make up for many of the medical complaints from which many of the women continue to suffer. What it is though, is the beginning of a healing process. Finally, we have a proper informed official acknowledgement of the wrongdoings that happened.

Collectively, we have all learned so much since Vicky spoke outside the High Court. We have had the Scally and MacCraith reports. They have shed so much light on what happened. They also raised ongoing questions regarding the Department of Health, the HSE, healthcare professionals and many others. I and others will continue to pursue those questions.

We in the Chamber also have questions to answer but they are certainly for another day. However, one thing is very clear: The decision to outsource the laboratory work many years ago was the wrong one. In fairness to some Deputies, one of whom is sitting beside me and one a few seats away from me, they questioned this and pointed it out at that time. The laboratories were not fine. The quality assurance that was necessary was not in place, the contracts were not managed appropriately and the accreditation in some cases was done retrospectively. These are the facts. It was not acceptable. I do not believe we have found out everything about some aspects but perhaps with the passage of time, we will.

Today, I am hugely thinking of another lady, Ruth Morrissey, who had to take on the State to get justice. She spent over two weeks in total in the High Court only to have the judgment appealed again. Today, I stand in solidarity with her. The Taoiseach said no woman would have to go through what Vicky Phelan went through and no woman would have to face the adversarial setting of the High Court given what had happened to them.

It was an error by the Taoiseach but I accept that he has subsequently acknowledged that and it is important that he did. The way Ruth Morrissey is being treated by the State is not something that I accept, however, and I am thinking of her and her family today.

I want particularly to acknowledge the patient advocates who have worked so hard on behalf of the 221 Plus support group. I acknowledge Mr. Stephen Teap, who lost his beautiful wife Irene, and Lorraine Walsh, who lost the opportunity to have children. I also acknowledge the amazing Vicky Phelan. The work and advocacy they have done has been frankly incredible. Three finer, more decent and caring people I have never met. They deserve to be respected by us all and particularly by the Department of Health in a way that has not happened to date. This must change and they, along with other patient advocates, deserve to be acknowledged and if we are going to have patient advocates across many different settings, we also need to remunerate them.

This long battle has had some good results: better awareness of screening, a developing understanding among the public that screening is not diagnostic and the introduction of HPV screening. We, in this Chamber, need to row in behind the HPV vaccine, not just for its health benefits but also to acknowledge and honour the work of Laura Brennan and others.

The provision of HPV vaccinations in schools for boys to help create herd immunity is another important step. We can actually get rid of cervical cancer in this country. We can get it down to the minimum level as has been done in other countries.

We have also learned throughout this process to question health professionals in a way that simply did not happen before, even when it needed to. People are taking control of their healthcare and that is good. Of course, we are in the process of ensuring that open disclosure becomes ingrained in our healthcare provision, which it always should have been.

However, there are many challenges ahead. The implementation of all the Scally recommendations must happen quickly. The audit of cervical screening has stopped and must recommence from the day the previous one ceased. I have never got confirmation that will happen and I ask the Taoiseach to confirm it. Audits are good things and the recommenced audit must start from the day after the previous one stopped.

We also need to provide an optional, low-cost vaccination programme for adults. Dr. Doireann O'Leary, a general practitioner from Cork, has pointed out there is growing evidence that the vaccine is effective past adolescence and beyond the age of 26.

The review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, RCOG, also needs to be completed. I am making a clear point to the Taoiseach today. The fact that the review is behind schedule and that there are issues with validating the data is not acceptable. The State must get this right and cannot mess it up. At present, I am not supremely confident the State will not mess it up and that cannot happen. When did an independent review by RCOG have to be revalidated by the HSE? This is something I hope the Taoiseach and his Minister will prioritise.

Today has been a long-awaited day for the women of Ireland, particularly those at the centre of this scandal. It is a critically important day for all of the people in the Gallery who have been affected. What has happened to these women and their families over the past two years has been a black mark on our State's history. If the right steps are now taken, many of which have been outlined here today, it will mean we never allow such a black mark to happen again. I have talked to many of the people who are in the Gallery today and that is the true legacy that they want from today's apology. They want us to have a screening programme of which we can be proud, one that is open with patients and tells them everything, gives them the best care and looks after them as citizens of our State. We, collectively, must do that and if we do, that will be the ultimate impact of this apology for all of those watching from the Gallery and for all those who are watching these proceedings now and in the future.

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