Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of incidences of audiology misdiagnoses in Mayo and Roscommon and the 49 children who have been affected by it. They had hearing loss and were not diagnosed because it was not picked up in the screening process. There are now 49 families who are left trying to cope with what has happened. I would call it a scandal because it was allowed to happen. The proper clinical governance was not in place to make sure that human error was not picked up. We need the Minister to get involved in that directly. The report has been out for the past four weeks. We need urgent action around the services and supports that need to be put in place for these children and their families. These include speech and language therapy and other therapies that are very necessary as well as physical hearing aids and so on. These services and supports need to be put in place urgently.It is not good enough to say a special package of care is in place. I have been talking to these families and that is not the case. The care package has not been put in place. I want to see what extra resources have been provided in that area. The waiting lists for speech and language therapy, for example, are unacceptable even without this latest scandal. Additional supports must be put in place. These families must be contacted individually. It is not good enough for the HSE to wait for the families to make contact first. The families are very afraid that should they create a fuss or contact the HSE about it, the limited services they get might be withdrawn. I encourage the families to come forward and speak out and I thank those who have already done so. The Minister must ensure a redress scheme is put in place for this as there is a long-term impact on these children where audiology problems are untreated. In any event, this cannot be left to go on month after month. We need urgent action. I ask the Minister of State to bring that point back to the Minister and not to leave this in the hands of the HSE. The Minister has a responsibility also to ensure action is taken quickly.