Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In 2021, a whistleblower revealed that the Department of Health was holding secret dossiers containing information on children with autism whose families were taking legal action against the State to ensure that the children's rights were upheld. On the other side of these challenges was the Department. When the scandal broke, it was claimed that there was nothing untoward in the Department's actions. We now know that is not the case. The Data Protection Commission, DPC, has found that the State was engaged in unlawful practice against vulnerable people. At the centre of all of this are vulnerable children and their families. In the words of one of them who has spoken to RTÉ, "What was done was completely and awfully wrong. ... I'm going to distrust the government for the rest of my life because of what has been done to me." His mother went to say, "I never got an apology. ... nobody else got an apology. Nobody got an apology." Given the unlawful actions that were going on within the Department, in some cases involving files being kept for as long as 20 years, the least I am sure the Tánaiste can do on behalf of the Government is apologise on behalf of the Government to each and every one of these children. Will the Tánaiste make that apology to them today?

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