Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have purposely tried not to personalise this, and I have not mentioned names today. However, unless there is any doubt, it is worth saying it on the record that the Minister received a letter and many emails from clinicians with concerns about the issues I have raised. An email was addressed to the Minister at the start of this week. It was from three clinicians, namely, Dr. John Waterstone, consultant gynaecologist and medical director of the Waterstone Clinic; Dr. Mary Wingfield, former consultant at the National Maternity Hospital and former clinical director of Merrion Fertility Clinic; and Dr. John Kennedy, medical director at Thérapie Fertility. These are three very well-known experts in the field of assisted human reproduction and they have many decades of experience behind them. They speak of the need for this Bill. They are hugely supportive of this Bill and they want it to go through. The Minister spoke of experts in the Department of Health. These experts say that the HSE, although I take it they mean the Department of Health, from whom the Minister takes advice, while it has many excellent doctors and staff, it has historically no experience in the provision of AHR services and has never, to their knowledge, contacted any AHR specialist regarding the medically complex aspects of this Bill. I want to put on the record that these are three of the leading AHR experts in this country. They obviously speak with many of the other experts in this country in that field. They feel they were not properly consulted on the medically complex aspects of this Bill.

I understand that the Department of Health has its own set of clinicians to consult and the HSE has other clinicians to consult. Ultimately, we are looking at talking to the people who are the leaders in this particular field. They have put this in a private letter to the Minister, part of which I have read into the record today because it is really important that when the Minister uses the word “personalising”, we are clear about the facts.