Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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165. To ask the Minister for Health further to his comment in Dáil Éireann on 18 February 2015 that it is inappropriate for any section or Department in a hospital to declare itself a national centre, if it is not the case that the National Centre for Medical Genetics, based at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12, was established in 1995 following the 1990 Tierney report of the Department of Health committee to examine medical genetics services; if his Department approved this at the time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8504/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In December 1988 the Tierney committee was set up to examine the need for a medical genetics service in Ireland and to recommend how such a service should be organised. Its report in 1990 recommended that "the medical genetics centre in Dublin should be based in Our Lady's Hospital Crumlin", and that other centres should be established in Cork and Galway.

The genetics service at Crumlin is and has always been under the governance of the hospital. Staff are employees of the hospital, and the service has always been accountable to the CEO and under the governance of the hospital’s Board in the same manner as other clinical departments. There are several services at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin that have a national remit, including outreach and shared care services with other hospitals, but which are not regarded as having an identity separate to that of the hospital.

Crumlin has recently made a decision to discontinue the separate identification of the service as the National Centre for Medical Genetics. This was done in the interest of clarity on governance arrangements. As with all patient services, governance rests with the organisation that provides the service - if a patient attends Crumlin for genetic services, Crumlin is accountable and if the service is provided by another hospital, that hospital is accountable.

A review of the governance structure for this service is included in the Terms of Reference for the Steering Group established to develop a plan for a National Network for Genetics and Genomic Medicine, as recommended in the 2014 report by Professors Dian Donnai and Bill Newman. The Group will meet for the first time on 3 March and is expected to complete its work this year.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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166. To ask the Minister for Health further to his comments in Dáil Éireann on 18 February 2015 with regard to the National Centre for Medical Genetics (details supplied), if it is not the case that, at present, a person can self-refer only if that person is the child of a person who had been diagnosed with a genetic disorder, and that there is by no means a free-for-all for persons who want to be screened. [8505/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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All individual initial referrals to the Department of Clinical Genetics at Crumlin are via a general practitioner. Self-referrals are not seen. However, where there is a clinical requirement, because of an identified clinical genetic issue, to see additional members of a patient’s family, these family members can access the service without a GP referral.