Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the context of the ongoing cervical cancer issue I refer to the Corporate Manslaughter Bill 2016, which was voted down in 2013 by the previous Government. During the Committee Stage debate we had on the Bill it was decided to remove section 3. That was the last debate we had on the Bill.

I will outline what section 3 would have done to the people who are responsible for deaths of women in this country because of the cervical cancer debacle, which is effectively killing people. It introduced an offence of grossly negligent management causing death. Section 3(1)(a) refers to persons who "knew or ought to reasonably have known of a substantial risk of death or serious personal harm" and section 3(1)(b) refers to where people, "failed to take reasonable efforts to eliminate that risk". What would that have carried as a sentence if we had passed it in this House in 2016? It was 12 years in jail.