Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will start as other Deputies did and offer my condolences to the family of Dollceanna Carter and my sympathies to the 19 families affected by what is detailed in this shocking report. Every parent in Ireland was stopped in their tracks by the emergence of this news. When you find yourself ending up in the care of our health system, even if it is just a run-of-the-mill referral to hospital or passing through a maternity ward, there is a handing over of trust on entering into that system. We step into an environment in which we literally hand over our bodies or the bodies of our children to the care of these professionals, trusting that they will deliver the best outcomes possible.

There are two things that jump out at me as the upshot of yet another scandal. The truth of the matter is that, when you access services in Ireland and get in front of a doctor or into a hospital, for the most part, the standard of care you receive and the quality of the outcomes are absolutely exemplary. We have outstanding staff across all of our health system. It must have also stopped them in their tracks to see another story about how, when you enter the health system, something awful can happen to you when, in point of fact, the care received within our health system is, for the most part, of the highest quality.

The second point is that trust is eroded. When you put your life or the life of a child or loved one into the hands of the health system, you want to be able to trust that you are going to get the best possible outcomes. The details of this story have been very damaging to that trust. It is something that must be rebuilt. I absolutely accept that the Minister wants to make the best possible progress in going through the fact-finding process and getting to the root cause. However, I cannot help but have a certain sympathy for the families who are asking why we are having another review, a review of a review, moving the timeframe out another 12 months, as Deputy Shortall noted. I therefore very much welcome the Taoiseach giving a commitment that he and the Minister for Health will sit down with the affected families and talk this through with them. We should look at the terms of reference so that, if we are entering into another review process, at least the parents will understand what is happening, the need for the review and what the outcome will be.

The other essential element in rebuilding trust is something other Deputies have talked about, the limbo that now exists for people who are still waiting on these surgeries. We know that, particularly with things like scoliosis and spina bifida, the longer you wait, the greater the impact on the life of the child, the more invasive the surgery and the longer the post-operative rehabilitation process. The other thing that all of us across the House would like to see is heaven and earth being moved to ensure the families who are waiting on surgery get clarity on what is going to happen in the immediate future. While I am quite sure the Minister and CHI at Temple Street are exploring all possible options, reference was made previously to the Government commitment to reducing the waiting list to four months and we should do everything we can do to shorten the timeframe for the provision of this life-changing surgery for these children.

This is another in a succession of scandals in our health system. They always seem to affect the most vulnerable in our society, women or children. It erodes trust. I again assert that, once you actually end up in front of a doctor or a nurse in the hospital system here in Ireland, the outcomes are, for the most part, absolutely excellent. We need to take whatever steps we can to rebuild that trust, which has been greatly damaged by this incident.

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