The Taoiseach has rallied to the defence of Minister for Health Mary Harney, saying he has full confidence in her ability to reform the health service. Stephen Collins, Martin Walland Olivia Kelleherreport.
Mr Ahern was responding to a motion of no confidence in Ms Harney tabled by the Labour Party for debate in the Dáil next week.
The latest crisis in the health service follows the disclosure that 97 women have been recalled for tests following a review of ultrasound scans carried out at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.
Ms Harney was not told about the recalls, and only found out about them during a discussion at the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children this week.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said yesterday that Ms Harney should step down as Minister for Health because her explanation for the failure to immediately inform 97 women that they needed a further medical check was unacceptable.
"Time and time again in recent weeks I've heard Mary Harney assure us that the women involved were her first priority and that she will ensure that they get all the treatment and counselling they need.
"Yesterday we got the truth. Yesterday we got a Minister who is so disengaged, who is so removed from the reality on the ground, that we cannot have confidence in her ability to run the health service," said Mr Kenny.
The motion of no confidence in Ms Harney will be taken during the Labour Party's private members' time in the Dáil next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The party's spokeswoman on health, Jan O'Sullivan, said the tabling of the motion was a serious development only merited in the most serious of situations.
"However, the disclosures about the failures in cancer screening and care at the Midland Hospital, Portlaoise, and the questions that have been raised about the subsequent handling of the disclosure of information by the Department of Health and the HSE are of such seriousness that they cannot be ignored by the Dáil.
"While nobody questions Minister Harney's personal integrity, the patience of the public has now expired at the continued failures in the health service on her watch."
Ms Harney, however, reiterated last night that she had no intention of resigning. And speaking on a visit to Cork yesterday, the Taoiseach said the Minister's job was secure.
"Mary Harney is working to the very best of her ability, from the day I first appointed her Minister for Health, to make sure that we have a first-class service and that we have the resources in to it which we now have."
Mr Ahern said the treatment for the 97 women was far more important at this juncture than determining who knew what and when.
"There is an urgency about it but only a fraction of the urgency that I have in making sure the women who heard about this in a very unorthodox fashion, and not in an acceptable fashion, that those 97 cases be examined."
Last night Ms Harney announced she had arranged with the HSE to ensure that as many of the 97 women as could be contacted would be offered their clinical review today by some of the leading breast cancer specialists in the country.
The reviews will be conducted by three consultants - Prof Arnie Hill, consultant breast surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, Mike Allen of Beaumont Hospital, and Enda McDermott of St Vincent's Hospital - all of whom offered to travel to Portlaoise to do so.
A further service will be available on Monday for the women who could not be contacted.
The Minister said she was very grateful to the three consultants, and hoped as many women as possible would be seen today. She said they would be available for consultation for as long as necessary. Any woman who required further evaluation would have it.
She said the HSE had telephone numbers for 80 women, who would be contacted by specialist breast cancer nurses. The remainder would be notified at home.