Mary Lou McDonald
Dublin Central · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“Now he watches as Paudie, his other son, aged 16, deteriorates with the same disease. He says Paudie does not have weeks to wait. He says, "I can't lose him [too]. He is all I have left." That is what is at stake here. This is urgent. Caithfidh an Rialtas an rud ceart a dhéanamh dóibh siúd a bhfuil Friedreich's ataxia orthu.”
“We know that both scramblers and e-scooters are being used by gangs to distribute drugs, to openly and actively intimidate, and to evade the gardaí and, yet, we heard the Garda Commissioner say that there would be no chance of pursuit training until next year because of the EU Presidency. I found that really shocking.”
“Their hopes were very high that the HSE drugs committee would finally approve Skyclarys, but those hopes were to be dashed. The committee decided against approving the drug. Instead, it referred it to a rare disease review group. In other words, one committee passing the buck to another committee.”
“This cruel condition moves relentlessly, ravaging their bodies and their lives, yet the system stands still, putting up obstacle after obstacle, forcing them to wait and wait as time slips by. This drug was approved by the EU Commission back in 2024. Two years on, it is available in France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Czechia.”
“So we are clear, it is not that all of this is frustrating for those living with Friedreich's ataxia; it is actually terrifying for them. I met Emily three or four weeks ago and I was speaking to her again on Tuesday. Even in that short time span, she told me that her swallow and speech had disimproved. We are on the clock here.”
“There is someone the Tánaiste knows very well in the Public Gallery. She is the unstoppable and heroic Cara Darmody. Cara has just completed her third 50-hour protest outside the Dáil, calling for real action for children and young people waiting for an assessment of need.”
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“I am very heartened to see that at least one Member got actual answers to his question. I am sure the fact the question was put by a member of a Government party is not lost on anybody. I have been in contact with Paul Guy, whose father, Audeon Guy, was referenced by the Taoiseach. As he knows, the family have gone public on the shocking abuse their father endured in Beneavin Manor nursing home. He is a lovely man. The sight of him left neglected, man-handled, disrespected and forced into a chair was shocking to watch. The family are utterly devastated. Paul has said that nobody should have to go through what his father endured, and he is quite correct. It is 20 years on from Leas Cross and the best the Taoiseach can tell the Dáil is that adult safeguarding legislation will come to the Government shortly.”
“The only certainty is that rents will rise. When the Taoiseach takes to his feet he might answer the questions I asked originally in respect of rolling out protections and what analysis has been done in respect of rents going up.”
“The only person who has managed to sow confusion is the Taoiseach, ably assisted by the Minister, Deputy Browne. I am very glad he was listening so attentively to me this morning. I hope he heard my appeal again to him to stop screwing things up. It is almost as if the Taoiseach deliberately set out repeatedly to make a mess of things. Deputy Martin is the Taoiseach, accountable to the House. I have put questions to him. They are reasonable and fair questions that renters all across the State are asking. Here is his fair and balanced package. For the investors - yes, cuckoos and vultures - what do they get? They get the opportunity for a higher rent yield. That is the big attraction into the market to boost supply, as the Taoiseach would have it. Of course, they pay not one cent in tax on their rent roll. That is nice, is it not?”
“Why is the Government delaying extending the rental protection until March? Why is it allowing landlords to set the market rate rents themselves? What analysis has the Government done? Can the Taoiseach tell us how many renters will be hit by massive rent increases from 1 March under the Government's plan?”
“Then the Taoiseach was caught out, so throughout the afternoon he scrambled around, denying this was the case and then, sometime in the evening, somebody slipped off and, bizarrely, changed the press release on the Department website to have a new wording - a wording that changes nothing. This is not about protecting renters at all. This is about making renters carry the can for the Government's failure in housing. The Government will allow record rents to be hiked up in the pitiful hope that big investors will save the day. It is the same casino behaviour that created this mess in the first place. Tá plean an Rialtais maidir le cíos imithe in abar idir neamhréiteach agus neamhinniúlacht. Is é an t-aon rud atá cinnte ná go rachaidh cíos in airde gan aon chinnteacht go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar an soláthar.”
“These are renters in rural areas, who have been hit by double digit rent increases already. If the Government does not act to extend that protection immediately, these renters will be put at immediate risk of big rent hikes as landlords move to get ahead of the Government's changes. Then we come to the confusion the Taoiseach sowed in this Chamber yesterday. It was clear from the statement issued by the Minister, Deputy Browne, at lunchtime that the Government's plan is to allow all landlords to apply full market rent at the end of six-year tenancies. This clearly meant people staying in an existing property and signing a new tenancy agreement, along with people moving into a property for the first time.”
“Fianna Fáil rolls the dice on housing once again. The Government does all of this with no guarantee that it will lead to any significant increase in supply. The Housing Agency is very clear on that score. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios, the Government's plan will see landlords of high-end apartments in exclusive pockets of Dublin charging eye-watering rents but in the rest of Dublin and in every other county there will be no extra supply but there will be much higher rents. In fact, there is a very real danger the Government's plan will actually tighten supply as landlords will now delay putting properties back on the market in order to charge a higher rent from next March. The Government says it will extend the rent protection to the 20% of renters it has left behind over a number of years.”
“The so-called rent reform plan the Government announced yesterday is a shambles. The Taoiseach is literally all over the place, confused by his own back-of-the-envelope proposal and unclear as to what he is saying. There is one thing that is clear - the Government's plan will push up rents even further. It is only a question of when renters will be hit. The Government will allow landlords themselves to set a market rate for rent. After 1 March and throughout the course of next year tens of thousands of renters will face higher rents. Some will pay full market rent at the start of their tenancy and all will face big hikes at the end of their tenancies. Tenants entering new build properties will be hit with market-level rents on day one and, with rent increases tied to inflation thereafter, they are set to see their rents rise sharply.”
“More than 100,000 children are now living in consistent poverty. That number has jumped, astonishingly, by more than 45,000 in just 12 months. These were the alarming figures reported by the Children’s Rights Alliance this morning. This is particularly shocking at a time when the economy is performing well and public finances are very, very strong. It comes at a time when the Government refuses to tackle the soaring cost of living. Prices are out of control, from rents, which we have discussed, to groceries, energy bills and essential toiletries such as shampoo and toothpaste. Working families find it harder to keep up with the basics and children are suffering and being hit the hardest. The Government has to bring forward cost-of-living supports urgently. It has the means to help and it is unacceptable to sit back and do nothing.”
“This is the import of the Government's proposal. The disappointing thing is everybody knows rents are extortionate at this point. The job of a responsible Government is to ensure a cut in rents and to ban rent increases.”
“He is about doing it very brazenly and then he wants to try to distract from that fact. He should go ahead and extend the 2% cap across the State. He should do that. We will support him in doing it. I do not think anyone will object to that. However, that does not disguise the actual intent and the effect, in the here and now and in the long term, of what he is about to do. The rent pressure zone provisions are being gutted. Regarding existing tenancies, let me read the Taoiseach's own words: "All landlords will have the right to reset rent where the rent is below market value at the end of each six-year tenancy." There we have it. Those are his own words. I have raised with him the issue of turnover tenancies, where people voluntarily exit a tenancy. That happens tens of thousands of times every year.”
“Baineann sé le brabús na dtiarnaí talún corparáideach a mhéadú chomh maith le brabús na gcreach-chistí agus na cistí maoine. When one cuts through the verbiage, this is just a plan to hike up rents; some in the here and now, others at a future date. Rents need to be cut, to come down, not to go up. Rent increases should be banned, not facilitated by the Government. The Taoiseach needs to think again because renters have had enough. They cannot pay any more and the Government should not be forcing them into this position.”
“The Government is now ensuring this will be even harder and that students and their families will be ripped off even more every year. Worse still, the Government explicitly allows all existing landlords to reset rent to full market rate every six years. That is essentially the death knell of rent pressure zones. The plan is not about protecting or giving stability to renters. It is about allowing corporate landlords, vultures and property funds to hike up rents. These are large landlords that have already got sweetheart tax breaks on their rent roll and on their capital gains tax liability. Fianna Fáil on the side of the big boys: who would have thought it? Tá plean ann chun cíosanna ró-arda a ardú níos airde arís. Ní bhaineann sé seo le cíosóirí a chosaint.”
“It is clear that this measure is, in fact, to hide the Government's blushes as it provides landlords with the chance to hike up rents in the here and now and as it provides yet another sweetheart deal to investment funds to build expensive rental property and charge extortionate rent. That is the real intention of these measures. The Government claims that landlords will only be allowed to reset rent to the market rate if a tenant leaves voluntarily. Well tens of thousands of renters leave tenancies voluntarily every single year. Under the Government's proposals, as one renter walks out the door they will be replaced by another whose rent will have ballooned. Students will be among the first hit by its actions. Finding affordable rental accommodation has been a constant struggle for students and their families.”
“The Government has certainly outdone itself this time because its first major action in housing is to enable big landlords to hike up extortionate rents even further. At a time when Government should be acting to cut rents and to ban rent increases and when people across the State fork out, on average, new rent of €2,000 a month - here in Dublin rent can hit €3,000 per month or even higher - instead it creates a new opportunity for tens of thousands of landlords to jack up their rents. The Government has made much of the intention to extend the 2% cap to existing tenancies throughout the State. It should go ahead and do that. Let us do that this week.”
“I extend a céad míle fáilte to Aran and Sophie Byrne who are recently married. They are here with their family - love's young dream in the Dáil. I also welcome the Moylagh Historical Society from the royal county. Fáilte romhaibh ar fad. The Taoiseach repeatedly tells us that fixing housing is his number one priority so people have waited for the big initiative for some idea that he might bring forward to turn the tide of this emergency. God knows, we have been enduring the Government's directionless approach since it has come to office, misleading on housing delivery, beds in sheds and the mad cap housing tsar idea really leaving people wondering would it ever bring forward a substantive proposal. Now, finally we have it.”
“There are no new ideas, house prices and rents are spiralling and there is record homelessness. Does the Taoiseach now accept, as the Minister has admitted, that the Government's plan is failing and that a major change in direction is needed?”
“As we know, the Government is all over the place on housing. As people sleep overnight in their cars hoping to get the chance to buy a home of their own, the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, went on television and admitted the Government's housing plan is failing. He stated that the Government is unlikely to meet its target of 41,000 homes this year and that the ESRI's projection of 34,000 units is more likely. This is a shortfall of 7,000. Of course, missing housing targets is the form of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government. Rather than misleading the public on housing delivery - which was their tactic during the general election - the Minister, Deputy Browne, is openly admitting that the Government cannot get the job done. It is as simple as that.”
“It is compatible with EU, Irish and international law. The Taoiseach needs to act now. It is very telling that, at a time when a genocide is playing out live before the eyes of the world, the priority for the Taoiseach is a pat on the back for him and his Government. Shame on you. Act and support our Bill.”
“Níl aon freagra agatsa. The Taoiseach is right on one score. I have a very long and established pattern of harassing and haranguing successive Irish taoisigh and Governments for their inaction on Palestine. I will grant the Taoiseach that. By the way, it is a pattern that I intend to pursue for as long as Israel acts with impunity and for as long as there is genocide and an occupation in Palestine. The Central Bank approves the prospectus which enables the sale of these war bonds. We want that to stop. It is as simple as that. Our legislation enables the Government, through the Minister, to put a stop to that. The Central Bank and the Irish State should have no hand, act or part, however minor, in facilitating the sale of those bonds. That is what we want. The Government has no legal basis for opposing our legislation.”
“Caithfidh an Rialtas an cead atá tugtha ag Banc Ceannais na hÉireann, a ligeann d’Iosrael a chuid bannaí den chinedhíothú a dhíol fud fad an Aontais Eorpaigh, a bhaint. This is a moment for Ireland to take firm decisive action against Israel's genocide in Gaza, drop the Government's opposition to the Bill and vote tonight to end the permissions given to Israel by the Central Bank of Ireland to sell its genocide bonds.”
“The Minister then went on to sound the alarm against Ireland acting unilaterally in prohibiting the Central Bank of Ireland from giving permissions to Israel to sell its war bonds. Of course, only the Central Bank of Ireland gives these permissions and approvals for the sale of Israeli war bonds so, by definition, the Irish Government must unilaterally remove these permissions and approvals. What the Taoiseach calls unilateral action is actually called leadership in defence of human rights. The Government's reasons for opposing the Bill are exposed as bluff. The emperor has no clothes. It is precisely the tactic the Taoiseach has used to delay and hollow out the occupied territories Bill.”
“The Minister stated that he is advised that the Bill might be judged inconsistent with EU law. That is bogus. We have over 20 pages of independent, robust legal opinion clearly stating that the Bill is compliant with Irish law, European law and international law. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, stated the Bill would step outside the EU financial services legislation. That is bogus. The Minister should know that Ireland is fully entitled under EU law to unilaterally restrict access to our financial services and that we are legally entitled to make that decision on public policy grounds, including pursuing our international law obligations. The Government has no sound legal advice on these matters and the Minister and Government scramble for cover and excuses not to act.”
“Israel openly invites people to invest in genocide. The Sinn Féin Bill, to be voted on tonight, would enable the Government - the Minister for Finance - to prevent the Central Bank of Ireland giving these permissions or approvals to sell these bonds. It would force Israel to seek that permission from another country and, of course, it would then be for other countries to stand up and be counted and to say "No". Ireland would be clear, however, that it would no longer happen in our name through our Central Bank. It is a disgrace that the Government opposes this Bill. Last night, the finance Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, in a shameful speech, gave the water-weak, mealy-mouthed and baseless excuses for the Government's opposition to the legislation.”
“Most Irish people do not realise that the Central Bank of Ireland is involved in the sale of Israeli war bonds and will be horrified to learn that the Central Bank provides Israel with the permission or approval it needs to sell these war bonds throughout the European Union. No other European central bank provides this permission. It is given here, in Ireland, on the watch of the Government. These bonds, to be clear, are used by Israel to raise the money to pay for the missiles, tanks, guns, drones and bombs it uses every day to slaughter tens of thousands of men, women and children in Gaza, lay hospitals, homes, schools and universities to rubble and terrorise the refugee population of Gaza. Israel does not hide the purpose of these bonds. It emphasises "the crucial role of Israel Bonds during this time of conflict and war".”
“I can tell you there is a lot in the world that is appalling. My allegation against you is the least of the worries of the world when it comes to what is appalling, Minister. Shame on you. That was a disgraceful speech this evening.”
“On a point of order, I want to raise my disquiet at the fact that people who were legitimately giving voice to what I believe is the widespread anger at the genocide and also the inaction of the Government, and the kind of weasel words we heard from the Minister, have all been taken from the Visitors Gallery. This is a democracy. This is a matter of absolute urgency. We are witnessing in real time a genocide play out and we have a Government that wants to give itself a collective pat on the back while sitting on its hands. The views expressed in the Gallery - that is where it is at. We need that level of anger directed at the Government because it is on some kind of vanity trip in which it does not recognise the reality of what is going on.”
“That is what it should; that is what it must do because in the end, Government cannot say it stands against genocide while facilitating the funding of that same genocide.”
“-----that mealy-mouthed pattern of condemnation but no more, deploring but ultimately standing back and doing nothing. The greatest shield Israel has is the refusal of the international community to impose sanctions. They continue to make excuses. They hide behind so-called complexities as Israel intensifies its genocide and continues to brutally and brazenly violate international law. Let me be very clear; there is nothing complex about genocide, there is nothing complex about the mass slaughter of children and there is nothing complex about the fact these war bonds are being used to fund the atrocity of our times. The Government can put a stop to Ireland's involvement right now.”
“Israel's war machine has some of the most sophisticated weaponry in the world but the greatest weapon in its arsenal is the impunity gifted to it by the international community-----”
“It should not be lost on anyone that the Government does this all the while and at the same time abandoning the occupied territories Bill and moving to dismantle Ireland's neutrality. Let me be clear: allowing the Irish Central Bank to continue to deal in and facilitate the sale of Israeli war bonds is an endorsement of genocide. It makes Ireland complicit. It flies in the face of the ordinary people of Ireland who have marched, protested, campaigned and, with everything they have, stood up for the rights of Palestinians to live and live free. Irish people know our history - the history of colonisation, occupation, dispossession and starvation - and they simply will not tolerate this Government allowing the Irish Central Bank to facilitate the raising of funds for Israel's genocidal regime.”
“Israel hides nothing about these bonds; it is very clear they are being used to fund its military onslaught in Gaza, yet Government allows this to continue. A year ago, this very week, the Government recognised the State of Palestine, sending a message to the world that Ireland stands with the people of Palestine and Gaza. In the time since then, however, this Government has stood back and with eyes wide open, allowed Ireland to be used as a financial staging post by Israel to fund its atrocities. There is something perverse about telling a people faced with genocide that the Government recognises them and stands with them while at the same time facilitating funding the very weapons being used to slaughter their children. How doe it possibly reconcile itself with such a treacherous contradiction?”
“This is starvation forced upon an impoverished refugee population with nowhere to go and no way out. This is the weaponisation of starvation against children, the sick and the elderly. The genocidal Israeli regime is sending a murderous message to the Palestinians: if the airstrikes do not get you, if the IDF death squads do not get you, if rampant disease does not get you, then starvation will. It is shameful that the Irish State and Government would have any hand, act or part in facilitating this genocide but that is exactly what they are doing by allowing the Irish Central Bank to trade in Israeli war bonds, permitting the Irish Central Bank to act as a gateway for the sale of these bonds throughout the European Union. The Government is allowing Ireland to play a role in the financing of this genocide.”
“It is time for the Government to put an end to the Irish Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israel's war bonds throughout the European Union. There is simply no limit to the cruelty Israel inflicts on the people of Gaza. Not content with perpetrating 19 months of genocide, massacring tens of thousands of Palestinians - mostly children, women and the elderly - Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza. The supply of food and vital humanitarian aid has been cut off to a people hanging on for dear life. The children of Gaza are being starved, exposed to disease and left to perish. We have seen these poor, frightened children on our screens, skin and bone. Their sunken faces and wide eyes look out into the world for answers to this simple question: who will help us and who will stop this? This is not a famine.”
“Shane O'Farrell mattered; his life mattered; his future mattered; and his death and how he died mattered too. The courageous fight of the O'Farrell family, whom we salute, stands today as an enduring testament that the truth matters. Like love, it matters and it endures.”
“I have met Lucia and Jim so many times throughout the years. Their decency, their integrity and their love for their family shines through every time. Their values stand in stark contrast to the disrespect and the dishonesty that they faced: a formidable Irish mammy and daddy who took on the powers that be, the power of the State and never flinched - not once - because they would not let their son down; and a 23-year-old lad who had everything going for him, who had his entire life ahead of him but who never got the chance to live the years owed to him. Cruthúnas atá sa leithscéal seo go raibh an ceart ag muintir O'Farrell. Bhain tábhacht le saol Shane O'Farrell. Baineann tábhacht lena bhás agus an bealach a bhfuair sé bás freisin.”
“That the family has achieved this apology today is a testament not only to their courage, not only to their determination, but to their undying love for Shane. His face, his voice, the life he could have had, the life he should have had, inspires them to keep going, to face it all. God knows, the O’Farrells are owed an apology from the State. They are owed reams of apologies. Today is the day for his lionhearted family who have shown what it means to love somebody unconditionally, a family that has not once backed down in their fight to achieve justice for their son and brother. They have faced the heartache of the empty chair, a pain compounded by the absence of answers, by the absence of truth, yet they kept Shane's memory alive and did not allow his death to be swept under the carpet.”
“This person was routinely able to flout bail and court orders and custodial sentences. He hit and killed a young man with his car at a time when he should have been in jail. The big unanswered question is this: why is it that he was at liberty on that night he fatally struck Shane with his car? Nobody has ever given an answer as to how this was allowed to happen, not to the O’Farrells, not to the Dáil and not to the general public. The O’Farrells have faced indignity upon indignity. They have been traumatised and retraumatised, confronted with years of shoulder shrugs and stonewalling, with a message from the powers that be: give up, shut up and go away. Lucia and Jim O'Farrell, their children and their family faced all this but they did not give up, they did not shut up and they did not go away. They fought and fought and fought.”
“He was released again. It was this disastrous decision that allowed Gridziuska to be driving a car that night, a disastrous decision that cost Shane O’Farrell his young life. Serious questions have been repeatedly asked about the nature of engagements between Gridziuska and An Garda Síochána because he routinely broke the law. He had 42 criminal convictions to his name. Gardaí failed to execute court orders against him. He received three custodial sentences in 2010, the year before he hit Shane O’Farrell with his car, and he did not serve a single day of any one of those sentences. He was undeniably a recidivist offender but was he more than that? There are credible allegations that he had, in fact, been operating as a Garda informer, yet answers have never been provided - not one.”
“To have your beautiful son taken from you in such a cruel way is enough to shatter the heart of any mother, any father and any family, but to uncover that the man responsible for your son's death should have been in jail at the time heaps searing injustice upon immeasurable heartbreak. On the night Gridziuska hit Shane with his car, he was in breach of bail and should have been in Garda custody. Seven months prior to that fateful night, he appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court on theft charges. The judge deferred sentencing him for one year but warned him, as the Minister said, that he would be jailed if he committed further offences. Three months before the hit-and-run, he appeared before Ardee court on further theft charges. The judge was not informed of the order from the Circuit Court and he was given a suspended sentence.”
“The truth is that the wagons were circled, ranks were closed and the State lined up against the O’Farrells at every turn. In the words of Shane's sister, Hannah, the family were treated like the enemy for daring to ask questions. Every bit of progress, every new piece of information, had to be dragged out of the authorities and would never have seen the light of day were it not for the tenacity of the O’Farrell family. On an August night in 2011, Shane O’Farrell was cycling home to his family but he never made it. Shane was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridziuska near the town of Carrickmacross in County Monaghan. It was a hit-and-run. He left Shane to die on the road, a young man of 23 with his whole life in front of him, his immense potential, his bright future and all of his tomorrows snatched away in the blink of an eye.”
“The apology offered today by the Government to the family of Shane O’Farrell comes after 14 years of their courageous and relentless pursuit of truth and justice for their son and brother. This apology is a vindication of the O’Farrell family’s unwavering stand for Shane and the life that was so cruelly taken from him. It is an acknowledgement of the litany of abuse by the entire State apparatus, not merely the criminal justice system, to which the family was subjected. It is to the shame of successive Governments that it has taken 14 long years to get to this point. Shane's parents, Lucia and Jim, and his sisters, Gemma, Pia, Aimee and Hannah, fought a fight that no family should ever have to face. A heartbroken, bereft family were forced to battle for more than a decade against a State and system that should have had their backs.”
“I challenge the Taoiseach to come clean, be honest and make good on his vow to do everything within his power to stop the genocide.”
“Even as it commits genocide in Gaza, the Taoiseach refuses to sanction Israel. Even as Israel massacres thousands of children, burns families and starves a refugee population, it is allowed to act with impunity. The Taoiseach's claim that Sinn Féin's Bill, which aims to stop the Irish Central Bank overseeing the sale of Israeli war bonds across Europe, is incompatible with EU law is utterly cynical and bogus. We have advice from the Oireachtas services here which confirms that the Bill is in compliance with EU and international law, in compliance with Irish law and in compliance with the Constitution. The Taoiseach knows this well. This legislation to stop the overseeing of the sale of Israeli war bonds is not only necessary; it is absolutely urgent.”
“Can he also assure us that the case of every child who had surgery since 2010 every will be independently investigated and reviewed?”
“It is now abundantly clear for anyone who wishes to see that clinical governance and governance in general at CHI is absolutely a fiasco. I know that three members of the board have resigned. I put it to the Taoiseach that the remaining members should follow suit because clearly what is needed here now is root-and-branch reform, change, transparency and accountability. I voice concern over the full independence of this reference group from CHI because that is the concern that parents are bringing to us. They have been catastrophically failed. Trust levels are on the floor. This involves perhaps unnecessary surgery on very young children. If the Taoiseach is true to his word that parents and children come first, then absolute independence needs to be given. Can he give us that assurance?”
“Its failure to prepare means that parents now face the cruel prospect of waiting months, with stress and worry, before they can find out if their children were operated on unnecessarily. Beidh tuismitheoirí fágtha cúpla mí ag fanacht le fáil amach ar cuireadh a leanbh faoi obráid gan ghá. Is é sin an toradh ar chur chuige mall an Rialtais. The Government needs to get its act together and do right by these families. Can the Taoiseach guarantee that every child who has had these hip surgeries since 2010 will have their case reviewed to determine if the operation was necessary? Crucially, can he assure parents that the expert panel will be entirely independent of CHI?”
“CHI is mired in scandal and catastrophic governance failures relating to unnecessary hip surgeries on children and unauthorised springs being inserted into children's spines. We also hear that a CHI consultant delayed treatment, referred public patients to his own private clinic and was paid thousands of euro through the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The failure of the Government to immediately establish and put beyond any doubt the absolute independence of all of the expert panel has led to a real fear among parents that this will be largely dealt with in-house by CHI. There is no excuse for the delay. The Government has been aware of this scandal for an entire year.”
“The parents also report that they are being fobbed off by the hotline set up to deal with their queries. Last night, parents received their first communication from the hospitals since this audit was published. It is a very blunt, insensitive letter inviting their children to attend appointments. Written in bold, it is stated that only one parent can attend. Who do these people think they, are treating distressed parents like that? At a meeting on Sunday evening, parents expressed anger, naturally, and deep concern about the independence of CHI's review and assessment processes. They ask how the very organisation that presided over this scandal can have any involvement in any review.”
“After her operation, I will never forget what she said to me, 'I didn't ask to come here, Mammy.' She walked into that hospital but had to be carried out, learn how to walk again, night after night, for weeks, screaming and crying from muscle spasms. Thank god she's back to herself but no doubt she will have those memories for life. I've no words left, only tears. Some 2,200 letters have been sent to parents. All of them now ask themselves the same question, "Was my child put through the trauma of surgery that wasn't needed?" The Taoiseach had said that the response to this scandal would be to put the children affected and parents first, yet families heard of the publication of the audit through the media and were not provided with copies before it was published.”