Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

There is an onus on the Medical Council to be proactive in respect of this issue. I am conscious that it is a random, anonymised sample, although, to paraphrase, the author says there is a preponderance to smaller number of surgeons in this context. I do not know who the clinical director at Cappagh is, by the way, but I know who the clinical director was at that time. That in itself is a serious issue because that seems to be a shutting down of the multidisciplinary team. The multidisciplinary approach is a safeguard against wrongdoing, poor practice or ill-informed decisions because the collective can inform. I have met many consults who say they use collective approach as to whether they will do surgery or not. Medicine is not an exact science. That is why the collective is important. I would be very worried about that email in terms of the suspension of the MDT in respect of assessing the necessity of operations in this area.

I have to be careful what I say. One further report, the Nayagam report, is coming. We do know, on a different case in terms of springs, action was taken with regard to a consultant being put on suspension. There is an issue for CHI as well in terms of it now needs to satisfy itself as an employer and satisfy prospective patients that there is no danger to any future patients and that the environment is safe following the publication of this report. I acknowledge what the Deputy is saying, that, by definition, the publication of the report creates issues with regard to a small number of consultants. That needs to be bottomed out fairly quickly. Obviously, the follow-through and the onus should not be on parents; the Deputy is correct. We now need to do an exhaustive examination. The Minister has already set about that, but has to put an external multidisciplinary team of professionals together to do that review of cases. That would then shed more light on the broader issues in terms of what has already been discovered in the audit with regard to veracity and verifying-----

See this speech in context