Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister has moved on some of this and his tone in this regard is the proper way to deal with this. I also acknowledge the co-operation from across the House. Everyone who speaks on this subject is very genuine in wanting to get this right.

On the issue of anonymisation, I am a woman and I would want to be informed. I absolutely do not want to be a dot on a scatter plot nor a confidence interval. I do not want to be a statistic. I would want to know. Other women may not. It is very important this is dealt with, and dealt with in the Dáil and not in the Seanad. I was a Member of the Seanad and I mean no disrespect, but we cannot pass the buck on this occasion. The Minister has the co-operation to be able to deal with all these issues.

We need a health service we can be proud of. What Vicky Phelan did in the courage and bravery she showed permeates through the cancer services that are offered.

We have the most brilliant people in the world with regard to dealing with cancer. While I am speaking, I will acknowledge and send solidarity from this House to all of the people who are undergoing treatment for cancer at present. We are lucky enough to have good outcomes in many areas. We need to talk about regional outcomes on another occasion but we have expertise here that is second to none. We are lucky to have it but we have to get this legislation right because patients deserve to have and are entitled to their own information.

The Minister has a responsibility and we have a responsibility. We have an opportunity this evening and, even if it takes a couple of extra weeks, we have a responsibility to get this right. It can permeate across the whole system and instead of having a situation in which we are protecting the system, we can put the patient front and centre once and for all. This has gone on for too long. I spoke to the Minister earlier about the valproate situation. I ask the Minister to bring it to the last Cabinet meeting next week to resolve the issues or, at least, to have an openness and transparency in how we deal with them.

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