Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will raise a number of points about all of this as a TD who has been contacted by a number of parents who have received letters informing them that the surgery that took place on their very young children may not actually have been necessary. I will refer first to the timeline. On Thursday, 13 March, The Ditch published an article providing details of what it said was the external report on hip surgeries on children. Six days later, on Wednesday, 19 March, letters were sent to parents - the letters I have are all dated 19 March - informing them of an audit that had commenced nine months previously. The parents who have been in touch with me knew nothing about this until they received the letter nine months after the audit commenced. One parent told me:

This is a horrifying situation to be in as a parent, I am not sure how well known this is, I only became aware today and I was sick in the stomach reading the letter and the report on the Ditch. I wonder could you ask the Minister for Health when will parents be fully informed as to whether the surgery on their child was or was not necessary based on the audit findings

Parents very much need answers and it appears they were only informed about the audit in writing after an article appeared in The Ditch. That is no way to deal with any such audit being commenced.

The calls in this motion are fair. I particularly point out the calls to hold people accountable and responsible for this. In many cases, we do not see accountability or people being held responsible. The Government should support the calls in the motion. We should work together on this issue to ensure we never again see letters like this and that parents never have to receive letters like this again.

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