Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important and long overdue Bill, for which I offer my support and that of my Labour Party colleagues. I also acknowledge the people in the Gallery to hear the debate. As the Minister said, the Bill serves a number of purposes. It will provide a long-overdue modernisation of our current coroners system and will update and modernise the legal framework for coroners, in addition to ensuring that a wider scope of inquiry will be available to coroners and enhancing our compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

I acknowledge the important work that coroners do. Coroners themselves have been looking for this legislation and, while they have carried out their functions to the best of their ability, it has been in the context of a very dated legal framework. They have shown sensitivity over many years in the way they have dealt with bereaved families. Coroners systems are about addressing the concerns of bereaved families and that makes this a particularly important and sensitive Bill. I note Vicky Conway's very good and comprehensive piece on this Bill in The Irish Timesof 17 May in which she made it clear that inquests must prioritise the needs of bereaved families, something the Department's working group noted in 2000 when calling for fundamental reform of the law on coroners.

I also acknowledge the great work of Deputy Clare Daly on her Private Members' Bill, whose provisions this Bill incorporates, specifically regarding maternal deaths. I pay tribute to Deputy Daly who, for many years, highlighted this by tabling parliamentary questions and working with interest groups and bereaved families to ensure that it would be something for which this legislation would provide. I acknowledge the work of Dr. Jo Murphy-Lawless from Trinity College Dublin, whom I have known for many years and to whom I am grateful for contacting me personally about this legislation, which her work also fed into. She co-ordinates the Elephant Collective, a group that was set up in response to concerns about maternal deaths. The group has done an exhibition called Picking up the threads: Remaking the fabric of care. Dr. Murphy-Lawless is a real testimony to Trinity College Dublin and I wish her the very best on her retirement.

I also acknowledge the families who have been so affected by maternal death and who worked so hard with Deputy Clare Daly to bring the legislation to this stage, in particular the families of Tania McCabe, Evelyn Flanagan, Jennifer Crean, Bimbo Onanuga, Dhara Kivlehan, Nora Hyland, Savita Halappanavar and Sally Rowlette, all of whom died in maternity care between 2007 and 2014 and whose families have worked to ensure better legal frameworks of support for families in such circumstances.I acknowledge the work of the Association for the Improvement of Maternity Services, AIMS, which has worked hard on this issue for many years. This legislation is hugely important, especially for the families of women who have died within maternity or maternity care services. The legislation will also provide for the mandatory reporting of all stillbirths, intra-partum deaths and infant deaths in that context to a coroner. This is not just about the deaths of women but also the deaths of children. That is a hugely significant factor and it is very important that we legislate for it. Unfortunately, we know of a significant number of maternal deaths, on which there should be a focus, as well as on the importance of the legislation in enhancing public trust and confidence and the confidence of women in maternity care services in Ireland. That confidence is not helped by responses such as that of the national maternity hospital which suggested in 2018 that a Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, review following the untimely death of Malak Thawley was unjustified, might undermine clinical and public confidence and that its effect on national maternity services could be counterproductive. That was an unfortunate response because, as the chairersons of AIMS, Ms Krysia Lynch, has noted:

Women deserve to know they will receive the best possible care with skilled, highly trained professionals looking after them, who can cope with any eventuality in the maternity continuum. They also need to be assured that when mistakes happen, they will be fully evaluated and compared to a national independent standard and that any learning can be transferred to other units.

This legislation and its provisions on maternal deaths should be seen in the context of a long history of the disregard and ill-treatment of and injustice for women and children within the healthcare system. We are finally moving out of that context. I again acknowledge the work of both this and the previous Government in seeking to improve conditions for women and children. However, it is worth remembering that in the past women in Ireland's maternity services were faced with scandals about which we only now know, including the symphysiotomy and hepatitis C scandals, the current revelations about cervical cancer screening and the bigger picture of the eighth amendment which we have, happily, repealed.

This discussion and context came to the fore again this week when we learned of how Majella Moynihan had been treated by the Garda two decades ago, which we are also discussing in the context of our debate in this House on the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016. We will have an opportunity to speak to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, about that Bill later and I am working with her to ensure it will be improved on. We need to reflect on the history of the unjust treatment of women in healthcare services and this legislation will mark a major improvement in that regard. I acknowledge and reiterate what Deputy Clare Daly said in the Dáil when she noted the need to bring forward this Bill without delay.She also expressed some concern that the amendments the Minister proposed to bring forward on Committee and Report Stages in the Seanad would delay the Bill. Neither I nor my party will be putting forward amendments, as we wish to see this Bill brought into law as soon as possible. I am sure that view is shared across the House. If Government amendments are brought forward on Committee or Report Stages, we all hope they will not delay the passage of the Bill into law and that it can be dealt with before the summer recess, as Deputy Clare Daly had hoped. I know that the Minister also shares that hope.

I again refer to Vicky Conway's article inThe Irish Times because inquests and a robust coroner service clearly play important roles in preventive healthcare. Inquests prevent future deaths because a key point of them is that by understanding what has caused a death within a system, they can make preventive recommendations. The World Health Organization reports that 80% of maternal deaths, that is, mothers who die within six weeks of childbirth, are preventable. Inquests can provide both the public and bereaved families with greatly enhanced information on how to prevent such deaths in the future.

I commend the Minister for introducing the Bill, as well as all of the campaigners who have helped to bring it to this stage. I look forward to its speedy passage into law.