Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will raise a very unfortunate issue about which an article appears in today's edition of the Irish Examiner. It is about how we dealt with the organs of children following post mortems. I was approached by a constituent, Ms Laura Kelleher and her husband, who now reside in Australia. They were involved in this unfortunate issue at Cork University Hospital. They were distraught that the organs of their daughter, Hope, were not disposed of appropriately and they were not kept informed regarding it. It was very distressing for them. They found this information out hours before an RTÉ "Prime Time Investigates" programme was broadcast.

An internal HSE audit has been done regarding this issue. Similar issues pertaining to other hospitals have also materialised. It is a significant issue of trust. To think that a person in such an unfortunate situation could not trust the hospital or consultants regarding what happened to their child's organs when permission was given for a post mortem, is a major issue for the State, families and society. The legislation being proposed, the human tissue Bill, which I have raised in the House several times, has not yet come before the Houses. It has to come before the Houses in the next session. We cannot have a scenario where a Bill that is proposed to sort out this issue has been drafted but not actually brought to the Houses.

From reading about what happened in this morning's edition of the Irish Examiner, there is a much bigger issue here. Some kind of tribunal should be established in order that parents can find out exactly what happened. An internal HSE audit has been published. That is not good enough. We need to appoint a High Court judge to review exactly what happened and look at the conduct of consultant A in the context of the article published today. This is a really significant issue for us and I propose we have a debate on it when we come back in September. The Minister should come before us regarding the legislation. There needs to be public accountability. The families affected need this, as do the mother and father I met in my office. I respectfully say we need to see real movement on this Bill and a public, independent inquiry put in place.