Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sad to say I am raising yet another issue with the Health Service Executive, HSE. I am getting calls from people anxious about whether the Government is making investigations into the drug sodium valproate, branded as Epilim, after it emerged that it was linked with birth defects and developmental issues. The HSE said it was preparing to create a register of all the women in Ireland whose babies may have been damaged in the womb by the drug. Again, we have families wondering if they are on the register of people affected by this drug. We are still talking about what will happen to the women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal and here comes another one.

There may be as many as 400 Irish children with birth defects and developmental issues because their mothers took Epilim. Before 2014, there was no warning label on the drug's packaging. The Oireachtas health committee heard last month that there was a mismatch between risks of the drug being known and women being told about them. Health professionals in the United Kingdom were warned about the dangers of the drug ten years before those in Ireland were informed. There was also the difference between what health professionals knew and what patients were told.

Again, there is a problem with communications. Why does the culture still exist whereby doctors can withhold patients' information and leave them in the dark about their own medical history? Primary care should always put the patients first. If something shows up on a test and the treating doctor is informed, the patient - man or woman - needs to be contacted over the telephone. There should never be a practice of sending a text telling the patient to make a new appointment to discuss the matter. Patients should make an appointment, but they should not have to pay another fee. The fact that they may be asked to pay a fee for going back to the doctor is another issue. That practice has to stop.

Patients must be able to trust that they are getting the full facts as soon as possible from their doctors, who in turn must feel free to be able to share the sensitive information without fear of legal consequences. That has to include issues that become apparent about drugs which were prescribed in the past, but there must be change from the top down. Too many Departments are keeping things from Ministers, the way the HSE keeps things from its patients across all areas. Not only does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing, no one knows what is going on.

We need to call time on that. Enough is enough. We can no longer reel from one controversy to another and act as if it is business as usual. The HSE has got to work better for us. We are paying for it. We can no longer hear the words, "lessons were learned and it will not happen again". Our citizens voted for us. We work for them. We should be their voice.

In terms of the HSE, the Taoiseach has said there needs to be radical change. I am sure people are rolling their eyes now wondering what will change. If we are still sitting here and getting it wrong, there has to be change. I would like the Minister to tell us exactly what is happening with this drug.