The delay in an inquiry into the incineration of organs of 18 children without the consent of their parents is “impossible to defend”, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
He was speaking as the Dáil was told that a report, promised when news of the incidents in Cork University Hospital emerged more than two years ago, is only now finally being completed.
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane, who raised the issue, said, however, that while the parents had been promised they would get a draft copy of the report by the end of September at the latest, “this morning we learned that these families have been locked out of the process and that they will not get a first look at the report. That is shameful.”
Mr Cullinane also questioned the delay in producing the human tissue Bill, legislation which had been promised for years. He said that in the interim the British government and other jurisdictions had enacted such legislation.
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Mr Varadkar said the Bill, which will introduce a regulatory regime for the conduct of postmortems in hospital settings, and the retention and disposal of organs, is being finalised and is expected to be brought for Cabinet approval by the end of November.
He also said the HSE had advised that the report is being finalised and will be shared with the families “in the coming weeks”.
The Tánaiste added, however: “I am not sure if we have powers of compellability in that regard but we are assured by the HSE that the report will be shared with the families within the next few weeks.”
He added that the HSE and the hospitals concerned had apologised and the most important thing now was to take on the lessons that can be learned.
Outlining the history of the controversy, Mr Cullinane said that the maternity section at Cork University Hospital had sent the organs of 18 deceased children to Belgium for incineration without the knowledge or consent of their parents and, more than two years later, they were still waiting for a report.
An audit on organ retention and disposal practices sparked by the controversy and commissioned by the HSE examined multiple hospitals and was completed “far in advance of the report into Cork University Hospital”, he said.
It found “similar unethical practices were taking place in Limerick, Drogheda, Galway, Tullamore, Portiuncula and Crumlin”.
Mr Cullinane added that the report found that a single consultant, known as Consultant A, “was responsible for a significant amount of this malpractice”. The consultant had previously been removed from his duties at the Rotunda Hospital in 2007 but “at some point, the HSE recommissioned Consultant A’s services”.
Mr Varadkar said he understood the parents’ distress.
“It’s hard to fathom the hurt that this has caused. It should not have happened.”
Acknowledging that the delays could not be defended, he said the legislation dealing with the issue had to be amended, and it is expected to be brought to Government for approval by the end of this month.
