Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, raised these questions with the Minister for Health a number of weeks ago, she said she had not seen or read the report.

It is only throughThe Ditch releasing the report that we can now all see it. That tells a story of the lack of urgency being placed on this issue by the Government that alarm bells are not ringing about something that was raised as far back as April last year and in the media as far back as July last year. We now know from the report published by The Ditch- the independent audit - that 79% of the operations in Cappagh did not meet the threshold and 60% in Temple Street. Potentially hundreds of children were operated on unnecessarily. A second family came to us and told us a consultant told them their young girl needed an operation on both hips. They thought something was wrong and got a private second opinion. They were told not only did she not need the surgery, but the child did not even have the condition. Let that sink in.

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