Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise something that has been an issue of concern for many people in the past ten days, namely, cervical cancer.I concur with Senators Hopkins and Burke and their appropriate acknowledgement of what needs to be done next. It is the biggest issue. We need to try to bring confidence to the system because currently that confidence is draining from it. There are issues as people are forced to go down legal avenues, which is totally unacceptable when there is a clear matter of accountability to be sorted. Senator Burke has raised the issue quite capably and there must be movement on it. We cannot drag families through the courts, as we have seen in the past few days.

I listened with some sadness to an interview on RTÉ radio yesterday with Mr. Stephen Teap from Cork and his story of how his poor wife, Irene, was lost. She was one of the 17 women who died. These are very serious cases and accountability at the very top is required. We need to do the right thing in this regard. The accountability from the top man needs to be there and he must be straight. The Health Service Executive, HSE, boss needs to consider what he is doing. The lack of compassion is a major issue. It is something we must consider as a Government. The boss of the HSE must take responsibility for this decision. It is sad and I hope we can get some closure for the people who have lost their loved ones. We should be able to put a process in place to put confidence back into the system. Sadly, that confidence is lacking currently. I would welcome an opportunity to discuss the matters raised by Senator Burke, in particular. We do not want these families going down the legal avenue. There must be a more sympathetic way of doing business rather than putting these people through a court case to get what is due to them from this sad issue.

Counselling services must also be put in place. Those of us who listened to that man's interview know he had no counselling when he got the news about how his wife was misdiagnosed. The HSE must seriously look at that. It must consider the whole family and the patient rather than having the clinical approach of providing information and seeing what can be done. There are many questions and we must learn from them. We must welcome the scoping inquiry, which is positive, and we need to learn fast how to deal with people, especially those affected by this very sad affair.