Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will engage this morning with the HSE and the Department to make sure they have full sight of this. The HSE has acknowledged that this has taken a long time to put together. A very eminent chair, Dame Lesley Regan, has been appointed to this work. She is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College London. She was identified as suitably qualified to lead the review and is an independent person, which is one of the things that was requested and is very important. Professor Regan was also president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK from 2016 to 2019 and is currently honorary secretary of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. It has taken a long time to put this together and the HSE has acknowledged that. One of the positives that has come out of this is the HSE has identified an eminent international independent expert to lead this review. I have no doubt she will bring very important international expertise to this important review. To answer the Deputy's other question, genetics and genetic counselling will be included.

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