Parents of babies who died at Midlands hospital in Portlaoise "were not dealt with honestly", Leo Varadkar has said.

The Minister for Health said he found it “extremely worrying” and “appalling” how the parents were treated.

Mr Varadkar said this included some cases where parents were told their baby’s death was the only one of that type.

“Yes they were lied to,” he said.

The Minister told the RTÉ's This Week programme it was important to an environment was created where hospital clinicians at all levels were honest about mistakes made.

“There is a cultural issue in our health service, it can be very defensive. Sometimes the patients voice isn’t heard how it should be,” he said.

The Minister confirmed on Friday a steering group would be established to oversee the implementation of eight recommendations set out by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) in its damning report on maternity practices at the hospital.

He said on Sunday although the HSE disputed some of the findings of the investigation done by Hiqa, both his department and HSE accepted all of the recommendations.

One recommendation, the proposed Patient Advocacy Service, the Minister said he would like to get in place sooner than the May 2016 target.

Mr Varadkar said earlier this week after meeting former patients and families he was convinced an advocacy service should be set up and remain independent of the HSE.

“I am ashamed at the manner in which patients were treated without respect, care and compassion when they most needed it by members of my own profession and other professions,” Mr Varadkar said.

Portlaoise hospital expects about 1,900 births in its maternity unit this year