Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Otherwise, we would still be getting replies to parliamentary questions that say X, Y and Z and we would be none the wiser. Hats off to Deputy Paul Murphy. I do not agree with probably most of the things he advocates but we certainly owe him an absolute debt of gratitude for his tenacity. Otherwise, these kids would still be suffering and maybe these operations would still be going on.

I genuinely wish the Minister every success. The one concern I have is that these things tend to drag on for months. That would compound the disservice we have done to the children and families at the centre of this scandal in 2023 because that is all it actually is. I do not know how he will do it, but I ask the Minister to make sure we are not sitting here months from now with interim reports and drip feeds. He must get to the bottom of this and give all of the powers to the investigator. He must give the new gentleman who has come to help us with this all the powers he needs to uncover this as fast as he absolutely can. That is the very least we can do to try to salvage a part of our medical system that has had the spotlight on it for far too many reasons and for far too many years, mostly due to underperformance and underdelivery.

We have gotten some speed in the system in the last number of years. It is mired in a whole mess that it is now down to the Minister to sort out. I wish him well, but I ask that we do this with speed and that there are repercussions. We do things in this country - we uncover facts and learn from our findings - but there are never ever repercussions. The repercussions are bare for us to see in the botched operations and lives that will have to be lived by those little people for whom we are here to supposedly make things better. I genuinely ask the Minister to make sure that we do it fast and that there are repercussions. We need to put in place a system in future that is foolproof and does not allow fake responses to parliamentary questions and does not necessitate a whistleblower somewhere in the centre of this - thank God - to keep hounding Deputy Paul Murphy to make sure he gets to the bottom of it. The sum total of my contribution is to look for speed and seek repercussions and get a new system in which we can have confidence and the families and children who are suffering day in, day out can have confidence as soon as is physically possible.