Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I am again speaking with the Minister. I thanked her for visiting UHL. Everyone has spoken about the surgeons who have made mistakes and all the rest of it. It is not always the surgeons. I can speak about a personal issue. My son had kyphosis. He underwent an operation. He had 136 staples and two rods inserted in his back. Some 12 or 14 months later, the rods snapped. That was not the fault of the surgeons, but rather the materials used. It is not always about the surgeons. I cannot thank the surgeons enough for what they did for my son at that time. He had to undergo the operation a second time during his leaving certificate, but he got through it. Thankfully, he is okay. What happened was the result of the rods that were put in his spine snapping.

I have mentioned UHL and other hospitals where if somebody does something wrong, we should not fight that. Those involved should put their hands up and say they got it wrong. Why are we fighting legal battles for five, ten or 15 years when wrong has been done? We should instead say there was a learning, we got it wrong, we do not want it to happen to the next child or person in hospital and we want to get it right.

Not everyone is perfect, but if people own up to their mistakes at the start we can then put measures in place so that people can be helped. I have spoken on numerous occasions about the case of Jessica Sheedy - I have permission to speak about her - who died in Limerick hospital. The case has gone on for years, something of which the Minister is aware. There has been investigation after investigation. The issue is that the people who are carrying out the investigation know the person who carries out operations and then asks what they can do. There has been cover-up after cover-up. That puts the heat back on the Minister in terms of trying to do the right thing when she does not have the full information in front of her to diagnose the problem. We are now at a point where people say this should never have happened. How many people have gone through the same thing over many years, where there was cover-up after cover-up?

I said that the Minister has come into office with a new lease of life in her Ministry. I asked her to come to UHL unannounced and she did so. No matter who makes a mistake in a hospital in this country, I ask that they put up their hands and fix the mistake. The real mistake is not fixing the situation and things going on for years. People do not fix what they have done. The family is not fixed. There is no protection for the next cohort of people who have the same type of surgery and face the same mistakes. That is what we are here for. We are not perfect.

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