Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I grasped his brief overview very quickly. I took the time today to read the record of the Dáil and that is exactly as I understood it. I wish to acknowledge the enormous work the Minister has personally committed to driving this legislation. The Minister also mentioned and acknowledged in his speech to the Dáil the importance of his team in the Department, which I picked up very quickly in the transcript. I also thank the officials. It is a really important Bill. It is complex but it is necessary and important.

The Bill will make it mandatory for patients to be informed of their right to request reviews and that is clearly important. The Bill has been brought forward, of course, as a result of the advocacy work and life experience of Vicky Phelan. It is not only Vicky Phelan, however. There are many other people who quietly went away and suffered. There were many people who fought as best they could but they were too weak to continue to fight. Many of their families continued to fight to take on the broad definition of the establishment; let us leave it as simply as that. They were courageous people who took a stance against the establishment for openness, transparency and truth and, ultimately, some form of accountability regarding their health and that of their families. That must be acknowledged.

It is not an easy journey for people to have to lay bare their vulnerabilities and personal sets of circumstances, but they believed that something needed to be done. I acknowledge all those women. Many of them were public figures, but many others could not go public for various reasons. As I said, they were brave and courageous and they took a journey. Hopefully, this legislation will acknowledge this and provide feedback and a follow-up to their call.

CervicalCheck campaigner Lorraine Walsh of the 221+ group was quite joyous after the legislation was passed in the Dáil and gave a number of statements. She said, "It was an immensely proud day for me and for the other people involved ... to know [that] what happened to Vicky and others, like myself, will not happen again.” I am always interested in the personal testimonies of people who travel a journey, particularly one like this, when they speak words such as these. They said the critical issue for this Bill is the right for patients to be entitled to a review of the diagnosis, which the Minister has clearly laid out as part of the three key messages.

I read with some interest the words of campaigner Stephen Heap. He spoke about how nervous he was in finally looking at the wording of the patients' rights Bill that was agreed by the Minister and his Department. Stephen went on to describe his massive relief at the passing of the Bill and commended all the participants in the Dáil on the tenor of the debate and success of the legislation. Again, this is someone who has gone on a personal journey and told his story. It is the important that we talk about people who have travelled the journey and advocated for this legislation.

I have spoken to others, and I want to say this clearly because it is important to say something and be fair, and they acknowledge the Minister's enormous commitment. It has not been easy. One of the difficult tasks for the Minister of Health is that there are so many demands on his time. However, I have only had positive feedback about his engagement on this issue, publicly and behind the scenes, to bring this legislation to where it is. I want to acknowledge that.

I also wish to mention Dr. Gabriel Scally and his team for the enormous work they have done in the area. It is important that all the Scally recommendations are fully implemented in time; he did an enormous amount of work. The women who lost their lives as a result of what happened in CervicalCheck and those who were denied the full, open honest account of health scans and their families paid a very heavy price. I would not do it justice by talking at great length about all their experiences. I will just say this is important legislation.I will not be bringing forward any amendments based on the meaningful and constructive engagement in the Dáil, from what I read.

In preparing for today, I read a review by Dr. Gabriel Scally. He was commissioned to do an implementation review report which was published in November 2022 at the Minister's request. Something jumped off the page that was very moving and it crystalises some of my thoughts around this. The foreword of his report contains a piece called "I Deserve" and I will read some of it here.

I deserve not to be treated as the aggressor

I deserve restoration

I deserve fair play

I deserve to speak with the decision makers

To not be dragged through the court procedure

when I placed my trust in the system

I DESERVE

That crystalises for me all the issues around this important legislation. It is timely, appropriate and important and I wish the Minister well on the journey bringing the legislation through the Oireachtas.