Mary Henry (Independent)

As Senators can imagine, it is difficult for me as a member of the medical profession not to hang my head in shame, having read this report and listened to the contributions of Senators Feeney and Terry, as I speak in front of some of those who have been so grievously injured by a member of my own profession. No adequate reason can be given for the behaviour of Dr. Michael Neary. This has been an appalling tragedy. I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, apologised on behalf of all of us, not just to the women in question but also to their families. The women and their husbands were denied children, their parents were denied grandchildren and the children they already had were denied siblings. A substantial number of people were affected by the appalling operations that took place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

Whoever stole the huge volumes of birth registers and charts which comprised the maternity theatre register should send them back at once, anonymously if necessary, as I am sure they have not destroyed them. The charts in question are of great importance to the 44 women to whom they relate, not just as they take legal cases, etc., but also as they try to get some kind of satisfaction in their attempts to find out exactly what happened. The registers contain details of the stillbirths which took place during the period in question, which means that women who had stillbirths at the hospital during that time are not in a position to register their cases. A national stillbirth register has since been put in place, fortunately. I assume that the theft of the registers and charts was done by someone with a misguided sense of loyalty to Dr. Neary, but it was a dreadful thing to do. They should be sent back at once. I hope the Garda investigation into the robbery will be satisfactory.

The commission that inquired into the practices at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital has done an incredible job. I compliment Judge Maureen Harding Clark on what she has done. Not only did she have to deal with the information she could get, but she also had to try to cross-reference it with other records to ensure that each of the horrific number of the cases was accounted for. The vast majority of cases involved Dr. Neary although some of them involved Dr. Finian Lynch. During the period in question, an excessive number of peripartum hysterectomies was carried out at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, compared to any other hospital in this country or any other part of the world. It beats me how members of the medical profession who were working at the hospital at the time can say they did not know anything unusual was happening.

The issue of gender has been raised in the context of the debate on this report. The membership of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists during the timeframe under discussion was almost entirely male. The men in question were in a position of great power, whereas a degree of hierarchical obedience was expected of the women involved, who were either patients or nurses and were in a subservient position to the consultants.