Mary Henry (Independent)

I would like to speak on section 62. I am somewhat concerned that this section is limited. When I first came into the House, Deputy Mervyn Taylor was Minister for Equality and Law Reform and I tabled a matter on the Adjournment asking for a stillbirths register to be set up. One of the reasons I asked for it to be set up was because of the importance of knowing about stillbirths from a medical viewpoint, for example if there was a dump somewhere around the country and stillbirths were taking place due to toxicity in the area. Unless someone was registering births there and noticing that there was a pocket of stillbirths, say within a 7 km radius of the dump, much important medical data would be lost.

Access to this register has been made so narrow that the same could be happening again. We could miss out on really important issues about increased incidences of stillbirths. This does happen. We know from epidemiological surveys that environmental factors can be important, so I am rather concerned how narrow the access to the register is. It can be important to individual people. I am sure the Minister will have been aware of court cases recently in England regarding cot deaths.