Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is important to acknowledge the trauma to any child undergoing a surgery but the very idea a child would be put through that unnecessarily is doubly traumatic. Parents are now faced with the scenario of not knowing. The audit may only be in draft form but the letters have been issued. They are arriving to families. This stress and distress is very real in the here and now and the Taoiseach's argument that we simply need to wait and wait will weigh very heavily on those families who want answers now.

The Taoiseach says the HSE was made aware of these matters in May of last year. Can I ask when the Minister for Health was made aware? It seems to me an extraordinary thing that a year later parents are being told, and they are being told again to wait and wait. Can the Taoiseach tell us how many letters and how many children there are and how long was this scandal in the making? Was it, as we now suspect, not simply between 2021 and 2023? Does it go back as far as a decade?

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