Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome a significant milestone, namely, the approval by the Cabinet of the patient safety Bill at the end of last week. This legislation will now proceed to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health for consideration. This is a very concrete measure to address the serious shortcomings that exist and have been exposed by the CervicalCheck scandal. I refer to the fact that women were not given serious medical information about their health. People in authority lacked both common sense and decency and did not see fit to give the women vital information that not only impacts on their health but on their lives.

I hope the Bill will be passed by Christmas and it behoves us all to ensure that happens. The legislation will go beyond merely holding organisations responsible but also will hold responsible individuals in positions of authority. I believe the legislation will create a culture of mandatory open disclosure whereby it will serve to address and correct the current mindset of "we know best." I welcome the legislation and view it as progress.

The legislation also will include a definition of serious patient safety incident, which includes wrong site surgery, patient death or serious disability associated with a medication or diagnostic error. The legislation will make it crystal clear that people are entitled and deserve to know about serious health matters that pertain to them-----