Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

As I said, to be fair, the audit was external, which means, in anything we do will have that reassurance for families in terms of the independence of any external review. There will be a retrospective review of every case. The Minister has acted and the Government fully supports her in this series of actions.

The first priority is clinical follow-up for all those who had surgery and supporting their families in the process of the retrospective external review of their cases. In addition, the Minister is taking immediate steps to strengthen the board of CHI and to provide for stronger support from the HSE in its engagement with CHI. There will have to be accountability on all these issues. The Irish Medial Council is there, but we also have HIQA and others. We will pursue the matter on that basis but the first priority is to work on making sure we follow up comprehensively on behalf of the children involved and their families.

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