Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

“Incredibly unkind”, “unprofessional”, and “a huge lack of respect” are the words of Michaela Willis, the author of the State’s 2009 Retained Organs Audit. She is describing the endless delays around the release of a report into the export of babies organs from Cork University Maternity Hospital, CUMH, to Belgium for incineration without parental consent. The South-South-West Hospital Group originally stated that this report would be released by November 2021. Why are these parents having insult added to injury and being left waiting a full eight months after that date?

We learned in the past week that the horrific practice engaged in in Cork was also engaged in in the University Maternity Hospital Limerick. In how many hospitals was incineration without consent practised? Can the Tánaiste guarantee that it was no more than these two hospitals? When does this Government intend to introduce legislation to ensure that such a scandal can never happen again in our hospitals?

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