Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

Given a review is under way, will the comments of the coroner, Dr. Madden, who is the focus of the reply and who in the past month has renewed his call for a more sensitive protocol to be put in place in the north west be taken into account? He said neither of the pathologists based in County Donegal feels qualified to carry out post mortems on infants. Thankfully, the issue does not arise often but when it does, a protocol should be in place to designate someone to carry out infant post mortems in Donegal. That may mean going across the Border rather than accessing a pathologist in Dublin or Galway. Dr. Madden is reported as saying this in the Irish Independent. That should be taken into account in the current review. I acknowledge this is specialist work and it does not necessarily have to be carried out in Letterkenny General Hospital but, in the context of a national framework, there should be a cross-Border element to the provision of this service.