Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“There is an added piece with regard to leadership. In the responses at the health committee last week, in the instance of Beneavin nursing home, there is 100% non-compliance with fire safety systems in that building. We were told that it does not relate to the structure, but rather only to the fire systems. If the fires systems are not fully operational, there is an immediate fire risk. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but it could happen at some stage and there is a very real patient safety risk. To hear that sort of response and lack of urgency on the part of the leadership of HIQA is deeply troubling. There needs to be very clear action taken to ensure that the leadership team of HIQA is fit for purpose.”
“There is a glaring gap in that regard. Liability on the part of directors does not appear to be pursuable. While staff are going to be pursued for wrongdoing, and rightly so, there must also be liability on the part of the directors.”
“I thank the Minister. There are four clear systemic issues within HIQA at the moment, notwithstanding that it is a much-trusted institution in the public's mind. That confidence has been dented, however. Clear legislative change and clarity are needed in four areas. The first issue is in regard to the licensing. I welcome what the Minister is saying about the licensing of corporate institutions and their intervention into the market. The second issue is the inspection regime. There is a large degree of ambiguity as to the point in which HIQA can intervene on the basis of an individual complaint or its own inspections. The third issue is enforcement. It is crazy we are having this debate about whether it can fine. While HIQA has powers to go to the District Court, it has never used them. The final issue concerns liability.”
“We are all reeling from the revelations about Beneavin nursing home and the nursing home in Portlaoise in recent weeks. It is clear that HIQA has given a wide berth to nursing homes when it comes to its inspection regime, which is in sharp contrast, I might argue, to how other authorities regulate, such as the Food Safety Authority and the Health and Safety Authority. I wish to hear from the Minister and Ministers of State as to how the inspection and regulatory regime will be strengthened within HIQA.”
“My direct appeal to the Minister is that she ensures some sort of new scheme will be put in place in specific recognition of those workers, their experiences, their desire to get back to work and their need to be supported. The scheme should be separate from the sick pay scheme that exists in the health service.”
“With respect, the Government is splitting hairs in distinguishing between Covid-19 and long Covid. Clearly, long Covid resulted from Covid-19. The reality is that the request has been for a framework to be put in place to support these specific workers. We are only talking about health workers. We are not talking about gardaí or the many other front-line workers who went out to work during that period. The Government gave false hope last year that some sort of scheme would be put in place. Now those hopes have been dashed. It is shameful that people have had to go to the High Court and that unions have had to go to the Labour Court to try to get respect for those workers who contracted this illness in the workplace.”
“The crucial point is that these workers have ultimately been told they are five years on and to get over it, but that is not their lived reality.”
“As the Minister knows, people's lives have been turned upside down by long Covid. This is not any ordinary type of illness. This was contracted in the workplace, yet there has been a persistent refusal by this State, in sharp contrast to the vast majority of EU member states, to recognise Covid as an occupational illness. The refusal to extend this scheme or to put in place a long-term framework for those who contracted Covid in the workplace reflects a shocking lack of empathy and respect for those workers. The reality is that the sick pay scheme currently in operation across the public service runs out after a period. As workers have described it to me, the special scheme has been a lifeline. There is a different pay calculation for that scheme relative to the ordinary sick pay scheme.”
“As the Minister knows, the scheme for special leave for those who contracted long Covid is due to expire on in four days on 30 June. A total of 166 section 38 organisations and HSE employees are currently in receipt of this payment. To be frank, the response to date has been downright disrespectful and degrading to those who gave so much and risked so much at a time of such uncertainty and risk in this country. What plans has the Minister put in place and what actions has she taken to protect those health workers who have contracted long Covid?”
“The Cabinet today approved the patient safety (licensing) Bill. It is long-awaited legislation and one we very much welcome, but will there be minimum staffing numbers in that critical legislation? The INMO has been campaigning on this for a long time. On cervical cancer, I hosted the 221+ group last week. We saw reports at the weekend that cervical screening is still failing women. Three women have died of cancer and seven more have a positive diagnosis after smear tests were allegedly negligently misread between 2018 and 2021. I ask the Taoiseach about CervicalCheck and the actions the Cabinet health committee is taking to ensure it can provide assurance we can all be confident in the work it is undertaking.”
“Department of Education and Youth officials then told us last November that it would probably be 2026 but that we would have a progress report after the election. The officials in the Department never sent that report. Requests for information are now outstanding for 33 days or more. We need specific information from the Taoiseach as to what is happening with this project.”
“My question relates to Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square. I ask the Taoiseach to make a personal intervention to get this building project done. This school is into its 23rd year of what was supposed to be temporary emergency accommodation. It spent a decade and a half trying to get its long-promised school project off the ground. Almost two years on from the sod being turned and two thirds into the construction works, the Department of Education and Youth has stopped those works. We are all left wondering what is going on. I will give the Taoiseach some facts about the project. When problems in respect of the school building emerged last year, project managers were appointed by the Department. We were told not to worry, that all would be fine and that the project would be completed in 2025.”
“In that regard, we believe it is important that the executive shall report to the court whether the centre is age appropriate for the child. If it is not age appropriate for that child, it shall report on whether a place may become available in a centre that is age appropriate. The executive must, in effect, report to the court in that regard and the court would then make a direction. I am conscious the Minister of State is supportive of this. I understand there are issues with our amendment. We are happy to work with the Minister of State on this amendment. I do not know whether it is appropriate now or later to say that we want to move and withdraw this amendment with the right to reintroduce it on Report Stage.”
“At a committee meeting last week, we listened to the IMO raise issues about the appropriateness of 16- and 17-year-olds being cared for in a paediatric centre when their care may be more consistent with that of an adult rather than that of a child who is much younger. That is also relevant in cases where that 16- or 17-year-old may require a continuum of care right into adulthood. Nonetheless, it is not good enough that we have what one could call a haphazard system at the moment. The number of children being looked after in adult facilities has gone way down and we welcome that. This amendment is designed to introduce the court as a sort of check and balance when those decisions are being made for children, particularly if they have to be put into adult facilities.”
“Amendment No. 165 relates to the age-appropriate environment for the care of the child, specifically when a child is detained. We are conscious that the Ombudsman for Children and Mental Health Reform are calling for an explicit prohibition on children being treated in adult facilities. We are also conscious of the misalignment in the ages that children age out of paediatric mental health services and paediatric physical health services. Children age out at 16 in physical health services and at the age of 18 in mental health services. There is a question about the appropriate physical accommodation, particularly for children aged 16 and 17.”
“I move amendment No. 165: In page 73, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “(10) Where an application is made to the District Court under subsection (1) for an order authorising the reception, detention, and care and treatment of a child in a registered acute mental health centre, the Executive shall report to the Court— (a) whether the centre concerned is age-appropriate for a child, and (b) if not, whether a place is or may become available in a centre that is age-appropriate for a child, the Court, of its own motion or on the application by any person, shall include such directions in its order as it considers necessary or expedient as to the reception, detention or transfer of the child in order to secure, in so far as is practicable, that the child receives care and treatment in an age-appropriate environment.”.”
“2) Act 2024 there is provision, I think it is in section 101B(3), for the Minister to prescribe that information be furnished by nursing homes and other centres to a chief inspector with regard to persons employed and details of employment. There have been no regulations in this respect and we need to see them as soon as possible.”
“Is he comfortable that we are entrusting the care of our loved ones - older people who need respect and dignity in this State - to very large operators whose sole motivation in many cases is profit? Is he comfortable that people are being paid the national minimum wage while looking after vulnerable people in this State? If he is not comfortable with this situation, we need to see action please. This is not just about HIQA, and it is not just about ensuring we get the home care support scheme in place; it is about ensuring the Government puts legislative provisions in place. I see that in the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.”
“There has been a pattern from Leas Cross to what was revealed about the private nursing homes and how many of them fell apart during the pandemic to what we saw on our screens last week. It is that private nursing homes have not found themselves well equipped to be able to deal with situations when a crisis hits. We again have reports from the Minister of State's Department with recommendations as to how to better equip them in future. It is the State's role to do it. Crucially as well, however, the State must take a leading role now. Is the Minister of State comfortable with the level of private sector provision of nursing home care in this country?”
“We can only imagine that ensuring sufficient staff are in place is not a priority for those operators that are purely profit driven. It is not a priority when the bottom line is to make a greater number of bucks. It is not a priority when ultimately there is a race to the bottom. We are talking about our loved ones here. We are talking about our older people who are very vulnerable and need respect, care and dignity. We are not talking about looking after tins of tomatoes or something else. We are talking about real people here and the State has reacted by not putting down minimum staffing requirements. The reality is that if we do not do so, we are going to continue to see these crises occurring time and time again.”
“The reality is the operators of the system need to be told they need to put a joint labour committee in place in co-operation with trade unions representing workers and ensure there are proper terms and conditions. The second key recommendation was that there should be "An appropriate mechanism to reach agreement ... in respect of pay and pensions" for the workers in the sector. It is within the power and the gift of the Minister of State to bring unions and those operators into a room and tell them they need to agree better terms and conditions. The second key issue concerns minimum staffing levels. The reality is that we have minimum staffing levels in the North and in other countries but they do not exist here. HIQA has no requirements with regards to staffing levels.”
“I wish to quote to the Minister of State the Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants that his Department put together in September 2022. It has two important recommendations. The first is that "All private-sector and voluntary providers should be invited to give a commitment to pay home-support workers and healthcare assistants, at a minimum, the National Living Wage". The Minister of State's Government has abandoned trying to go next or near a living wage for all workers. What has it done for healthcare assistants in nursing homes? I do not think I have ever heard a reference from this Government concerning this issue.”
“Earlier today I talked about the vast number of people in the private nursing home sector who are on the minimum wage, and the incredible turnover figures of 54% in 2022 among healthcare assistants. We are all talking about the turnover in the childcare sector and other sectors. I do not think the figure of 54% can be beaten across any other industry in the country. There is a reason for that, and it is how they are treated, the lack of resources and all the things we saw in that programme last Tuesday night. They are being deprived of resources, being made to work extremely long hours and getting paid a pittance. The reality is that this Government has report after report sitting there with regard to how we need to change pay if we are to improve quality.”
“Approximately 20% of nursing homes closed between 2020 and 2022. There are fundamental decisions for this Government to make about what type of nursing home sector it wants in the future. In particular, does the Government want the small nursing home providers across the country or not? They are not getting support from the banks and they are certainly not getting support from the State. They would also hold a view with regard to HIQA that there have been kid gloves for the bigger operators and less so for them. That has to be teased out over time but it is certainly an allegation they would make. We have a growing set of market-driven and profit-driven nursing home operators and that has to change. The key issue in all this is the impact on care.”
“The State and the Government over the last ten years have done little or nothing to ensure there is increased scrutiny over those facilities. I was talking to a medical professional yesterday who has long years of service in the nursing home sector, and who has significant funds in the bank. He went to the bank to borrow to purchase a small nursing home in the south of this country. He could not get a loan and that nursing home is now in the hands of a conglomerate. That is happening across the country. There are small nursing home providers, many although not all of which do great work, and they need to make upgrades to their nursing homes. They are being refused funding. Then they find themselves in difficulty with HIQA and we see the closures on the scale we have seen over recent years.”
“Some 38% of all beds are controlled by large long-term residential companies and they are growing. In the 2000s, we saw the nursing home sector turbo-charged by the tax exemptions brought in by the Fianna Fáil Government starting in 1997 and continuing well into the 2000s. Now we are seeing that REITs are beginning to operate in the sector. They are able to go in as property companies, propcos, and buy up buildings or set up buildings, and then they have what is known as an opco to operate. There is a business model there that is designed to maximise profit, separate out liabilities and exposure, particularly with regard to accountability, and ultimately put our State and most crucially the elderly people in these facilities in an extraordinarily vulnerable position.”
“First, a raft of reports are sitting in the Minister of State's Department gathering dust. We have a report from 2022 on workforce planning. We have the pilot on staffing. We have the learnings from Covid from 2020. We have the guidelines from the start of this year on the maximum size of nursing home beds. They have all fallen off the bandwagon and off the agenda. There has been no prioritisation in government regarding this, and no action. That has to change. The other key feature is the overwhelming extent to which our State relies on the private sector. When we say "the private sector" we have to be careful, because it is a real mixed bag. It is true that 80% of nursing home care is within the private sector. As my party leader, Deputy Bacik, said yesterday, ten funds now control 30% of nursing home beds.”
“We have seen a fundamental breach of that trust. My very serious concern, as I said earlier, is that when all this dies down, the only focus for the Government is going to be ensuring that HIQA tries a bit harder and gets its act together and that we have the added safeguarding legislation. This is separate from the work on home care supports, which is a very important body of work that needs to happen. We will always need nursing homes in this country. If the figures prove correct, we will have more than half a million people over the age of 80 in 25 years' time, including people living in rented accommodation or, as in my constituency, three generations living in a single home. We are going to need nursing homes and we have to get it right. As I have been thinking about this over the last few days, two things have struck me.”
“I welcome that we are having this debate today but we should not be here. I give huge credit to the "RTÉ Investigates" team for putting together that programme. If HIQA had been doing its job, we would not have had to have it. Clare Doyle should not have had to take that enormous step on her part to tell the stories that had been relayed to her. I would argue that we need to hear more from her because I believe she has more to say. To the Guy family in Glasnevin and to the other families of the residents in Portlaoise and Glasnevin, I say that we are all extremely conscious that one of the most difficult decisions any family will ever take is to put a loved one into a nursing home. It is a decision that places enormous trust in strangers to treat that person with dignity and respect in their final years.”
“We can have all the home care supports they want, but they will end up going into a nursing home when they get to a particular stage of their lives. They need to know that they will get the care they need. There is a pattern between Leas Cross, the failures in 2020 and what was revealed last week. In the Labour Party's view, it is the influence of big business with regard to how they have used nursing home care in this country to generate profits and not provide adequate care on the ground. The State needs to take a leading role in that regard.”
“The Tánaiste was the Minister for Health when the report of the inquiry into private nursing homes was published in 2020, with regard to the failures that happened in nursing homes. The Tánaiste was the then Minister for Health who saw those very clear recommendations, which have not been implemented. We have a plethora of reports within the Department of Health post-pandemic, mainly stemming from 2020 to 2022, which have not been implemented. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who are looking to their future. We know there will be half a million people over the age of 80 in 25 years' time. People in my constituency have three generations in a house and will have no choice but to go into a nursing home.”
“Does the Tánaiste want workers to be properly resourced, to be paid decently and to work in conditions in which they can provide the best possible care? Will he implement the recommendations of the 2022 report? Will he commit to the State playing a leading role in developing residential long-term care alongside smaller private nursing homes in this country?”
“I have to ask the Tánaiste whether he is comfortable that the nursing home sector has become dominated by big business in Ireland. Is he comfortable with the fact that those to whom we are entrusting the care of our people are increasingly dominated by big business? Yesterday my party leader Deputy Bacik spoke of ten investment funds owning one third of all nursing home beds in Ireland. We know from the ESRI research that 20% of smaller private nursing homes closed between 2020 and 2022. We are seeing the growth of nursing homes driven by private equity-owned operators. The reality is that many are owned by what are called "opcos". REITs, which pay no tax, have separate entities to operate them known as "opcos". The reality is that smaller nursing homes are being crowded out.”
“The PWC report on nursing home staff in 2023 found the staff turnover of healthcare assistants in private nursing homes was as high as 54% in 2022. Even the childcare sector does not have staff turnover figures as high as that. Sitting in the Department of Health since 2022 is a report by a task force put together by the Department which recommends a living wage for all public and private sector nursing home staff. It recommends consideration of a pay agreement for the sector along with other important changes. What has happened since then? Nothing. Many of those workers are still on the minimum wage. Some providers are failing to pay the work permit minimums according to reports I am getting and there is huge frustration among the workers at being forced to work extremely long hours in the sector.”
“What really worries me now is that the Government somehow believes that if HIQA tries harder, and if the adult safeguarding legislation is brought in to investigate individual complaints after those instances happen, then all will be fine. However, it will not. There are big questions for the Government now about the type of care we want for our older people in this country. Do we want a nursing home system where there is no minimum staffing level? These standards exist in the North and in other countries but they do not exist here. HIQA provides no guidance to nursing homes on safe staffing levels. Will providers whose chief motivation is profit, and there are many of them out there, ensure they have the right number of nurses and healthcare assistants on their premises? They will not.”
“My thoughts are also with the loved ones of those on the flight from Ahmedabad to England. I have friends in Ahmedabad and we are very worried about them today. I also offer condolences on behalf of the Labour Party to Deputy Conway-Walsh on the loss of her mother. One of the most difficult decisions a family will ever have to take is to put a loved one into a nursing home. This decision places enormous trust in strangers to treat that older person with the respect and dignity they deserve in the final years of their life. The brilliant investigative journalism by RTÉ last week showed very distressing scenes in Glasnevin and Portlaoise. In the week since then, all of the focus has been on the very serious failures in HIQA. There are some good nursing homes out there, just as there are some good people in HIQA.”
“We must remember that in 2008, when prices began to fall, it took ten years for consumer prices to get back up to their 2008 levels. Are we going to see some sneaky introduction of an upward-only rent provision in the regulations or the legislation when rents are increased? We all remember that from the recession. It seems institutional investors will be demanding that in the regulations. We need clarity from the Government as to how exactly that CPI measure will be introduced.”
“I am not clear as to how raising rents will provide an absolute guarantee that we will see a big rush of money into the State, given that these funds will often be looking for a guaranteed rent. This is the critical point here. About 5,000 evictions have been notified at the start of this year and about €500 million has been spent on HAP. With higher rents, how are people going to pay these higher rents the Government is now accepting that people should pay. It will put them into the hands of social housing waiting lists and HAP and increase that State bill all the more. I do not see any fiscal prudence in all this. I have one question. If there is a downturn, can rents fall as well as rise? That is the premise of linking them to the CPI.”
“Often, the rent pressure zone cap is breached because people are having to accept rents increased above the 2%, faced with no alternative. I want to understand from the Minister of State what he thinks the impact of these changes will be. Apartments are the future of living in Dublin. The Government has made clear to people that it does not believe homeownership of apartments will ever be a possibility. We saw that a number of years ago with the bulk-purchase regulations that were brought in only for houses and not for apartments because, as we were told at that time, we had to leave bulk-purchase for apartments to attract institutional investors. It did not work then.”
“In the changes announced today, there is an air of desperation on the part of the Minister of State and the Government to try to drive up housing supply. By lifting the cap on rents in order to attract institutional funding, the Government is effectively condemning workers and families, in Dublin in particular, to a lifetime of astronomical rents when there are fewer and fewer options to buy. Young workers, those new to the city and those evicted will not stand a chance. It is about pulling up the ladder from those who are trying to find rental accommodation. There will be some protections for those in rental accommodation, but only up to six years. Rents are already impossibly high in this city, at over €2,000 and growing at just short of 5% this year.”
“I was under no illusions when I listened to the Taoiseach yesterday trying to minimise what the occupied territories Bill could do, saying it amounts to a small amount of goods. It is only between €500,000 and €1 million but we should not underestimate the symbolism of passing the occupied territories Bill. On the Israeli war bonds that are currently being licensed by the Central Bank of Ireland, if the law is wrong, we need to change the law. The Government's approach on this is really disappointing. We could change the law if we saw fit but the Government is choosing not to. This is about doing everything within our power as a small country to ensure that we take a stance, that we are not looking back in 50 years' time and saying we failed the Palestinian people as they were being wiped out.”
“That image haunts my mind, those glassy, outsized eyes, the emaciated arms, what looks like a smile. I fed my own three babies and it is the most remarkable feeling to be able to give life, nutrition and growth from a mother's body to a baby, but right now the mothers of Gaza cannot do that. Babies are being condemned to death. The motion today is about taking action. It is not just about decrying the depraved acts we are seeing in front of us right now, but saying that we need to show moral leadership at the United Nations. We have been saying it for months with regard to the occupied territories Bill and I welcome in part what the Government is doing, albeit we are deeply disappointed about the services.”
“I defy anyone looking at the children with bullets in their chests, or the reports of children with bullets to their heads to say this is anything other than an act of depravity. People are forced to walk 15 km, the young, the old and the disabled excluded. There are pictures of people squeezed into an orderly pen. It looks like a concentration camp and I do not say that lightly. The deliberate positioning of the food camp to the south is to force an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from the north. During the week António Guterres said that just a teaspoon of aid is being let in. The forced starvation of people into submission, into complete defeat is an abomination. I cannot get the image out of my head that has been circulating during the week, of Siwar Ashour, a six-month-old baby.”
“It is a war intent on the annihilation of the Palestinian people, a war so depraved that even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who certainly has not covered himself in glory previously, says this is a war motivated "knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated", "a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians." Those words are an understatement of what is happening right now in Gaza. Over recent months, any of us who have criticised the Israeli Government have been accused of anti-Semitism. I defy anyone looking at the pictures yesterday of the food distribution centres to say that they show any kind of humanity or dignity.”
“I am sharing time with Deputies Kelly and Nash. I thank my colleague Deputy Smith for bringing this motion before the House. We have been here many times before. The reality is that we have almost 500,000 women, men and children now being starved to death in front of our eyes. Approximately 1 million more people are on the brink of starvation and, yet, there are 116,000 metric tonnes of food, more than four-months supply, sitting metres from where hundreds of thousands of people live. Let us make no mistake here. This is a war on children. This is a war intent on cutting off the future of those thousands of children in Palestine.”
“Her three children had undergone pelvic osteotomy. She secured a review with the surgeon two weeks ago. An X-ray was taken and this was followed up by a meeting with the consultant. She asked the questions and the surgeon told her that he had done her children a favour for their future. She is not sure who to believe any more. Who precisely will provide the follow-up care for every child who has undergone pelvic osteotomy that has now been committed to? Will it be the surgeon who undertook the procedure or somebody different? I am conscious I have only a few seconds left but there are now serious questions about the NTPF. I refer to the allegations made on Sunday. We would like that report to be published as soon as possible. There are serious questions about the NTPF and an audit of its processes needs to be undertaken.”
“There is also a situation where we know that there are approximately 220 children currently awaiting orthopaedic procedures. Those families are obviously deeply worried that there will be any sort of reduction in activity and we need to provide assurances to them. On the steps being taken now and the letters being set out, the question has to be asked that with all that has gone on, how could CHI be so tone deaf as to insert in its letter that only one parent attends? Perhaps the Minister might be clarify that because the parents who have contacted me stated that they feel broken and that their confidence has been shattered because of the uncertainty of whether they have put their child through an unnecessary procedure. I will refer to a woman who contacted my colleague Deputy Mark Wall today.”
“At the time, the family felt the decision was quite rushed but, nonetheless, they were in the hands of the surgeons. I suppose my ask is that in terms of the opening up of the external review, it would be opened up to those children older than seven years of age. One of my final questions relates to the change with regard to this new single peer-led review of a team of all surgical decision-making. Is that only for pelvic osteotomies or for all surgical procedures within CHI? That is a critical question. Some weeks ago, I raised the issue of the status of current activity within CHI. Have surgeons been referred to the Medical Council? While these reviews are ongoing, has activity been temporarily suspended or reduced? I understand that is not the case.”
“While the offer from the HSE with regard to the external review is confined to patients who have undergone pelvic osteotomies, and the protected disclosure, of course, related specifically to that, I have to ask the Minister whether she is confident that there were not other procedures conducted by those same surgeons that may have also been deemed unnecessary or perhaps did not meet the internationals standards for clinical indication because there is an air of distrust now with regard to all the procedures that have been undergone. The review that was published on Friday related to children aged seven and under who had the pelvic osteotomy operations but I had a family contact me whose daughter was 13 years of age and underwent a similar procedure.”
“As I understand it, it is because those children born in that year are currently ageing out of the paediatric children's hospital services, but there are children older than that, aged 17, 18 and slightly older, whose parents have also raised concerns with me about whether those children were caught up in the unnecessary pelvic osteotomy procedures. If I heard correctly, the CEO of the HSE, whom I have great time for, stated on Sunday that it was believed there was a situation with the clinical audits and that there was some reference made to 2010 but I understand from talking to other surgeons that the practice of clinical audits goes way back and is a key part of all surgical training so that it not having been embedded into the oversight procedures within CHI is, in itself, stark.”