I note the Tánaiste apologised to victims at the publication of the Drogheda hospital report and I welcome that. Will the Taoiseach apologise on behalf of the Government to the trauma experienced by victims of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital which has been documented comprehensively through the publication of the Judge Harding Clarke report?

Does the Taoiseach accept that this report raises fundamental questions for the Government? Is it not shocking and bizarre that 20 times the national average of caesarian peripartum hysterectomies continued to be performed in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for 25 years before any professional raised a concern? Is it not a terrible reflection on the State that it took a midwife who had been trained outside the State to blow the whistle on this saga of trauma and malpractice? Is there not a grave onus on the Government to quickly make some amends to the victims for years of failure by the State to properly inspect and regulate the medical profession and for the irreversible damage done to dozens of patients who have sought justice for many years?

I urge the Taoiseach to indicate the Government's willingness to set up a redress board to provide crucial justice to the victims mutilated in that Drogheda hospital. Will he alleviate some of the distress of the 44 or so patients whose files have been stolen by placing the onus on the hospital to say it carried out each operation properly, rather than placing the burden of proof on the distressed patients?

The report recommends various legislation. It calls for a wide-ranging medical practitioners Bill. This Bill was promised in 2004 and 2005 and it is on the list again for 2006. Will the Taoiseach give the publication date of that legislation? Will he also indicate whether he will take on board the need for legislation for whistleblowers. The scandal of Leas Cross would not have come out but for media reports. It is obvious we need legislation on whistleblowers.

The report makes clear that we need legislation to protect the medical records of patients in these circumstances. That legislation needs to be documented carefully so that the information will not be privy to freedom of information requests and will be kept sacrosanct for any need that may arise in the future. Will the Taoiseach act on the need for the legislation recommended in the report and particularly on the need for a redress board? Anything else will not be adequate.

I express my deep regret to the women affected by the trauma and suffering as a result of the events of recent years. Since these issues came to light in 1998, they have been acted upon and have been thoroughly investigated and the Cabinet approved publication of the reports of today. I commend the work that has gone into the preparation of this report. It is a good job and an excellent bringing together of an enormous amount of facts and reports. The findings and recommendations will be examined immediately and in great detail by the Department of Health and Children in consultation with the Health Service Executive and the various professional regulatory bodies involved in quality assurance in the hospital service. This affects a range of groups and that will happen. The Tánaiste will meet Patient Focus tomorrow and discuss the other issues mentioned by Deputy Sargent. She will discuss matters with the support groups and many of the former patients who attended at Drogheda hospital. We promised we would do that as soon as the report was published and it is there that those matters should be discussed.

With regard to legislation, the report's findings and recommendations will be dealt with and will be of considerable benefit in terms of informing the approach being taken in the preparation of the medical practitioners Bill. That Bill is already well advanced but the recommendations of this report will help in its completion and will be very beneficial. It will also be beneficial in the work that is well advanced on the health information equality authority and in the current consultant contracts negotiations. It will feed into all of these issues. I assure the House, now that we have this report, that we will be able to deal with these issues and to move on as quickly as possible.

I hear the Taoiseach expressing regret and I ask him to be quite specific. Does he apologise on behalf of the Government or has the Tánaiste simply apologised on her own behalf? It is very important to clarify that. What does the Taoiseach mean when he says the matter has been dealt with? I understand and appreciate the work that has gone into the investigation but does the Taoiseach accept we still have a culture in this country of consultants being viewed as gods, somewhat like priests in the 1950s? We are still dealing with the legacy of that perception. Does the Taoiseach accept that many nurses are living in deference, if not fear, of consultants and that there is a need to deal with that culture? We have had inspections, based on what is in this report, that did not inspect. The inspections were simply dealing with the training facilities and not with medical performance. We do not just have a scandal——

The Deputy's time is concluded.

——we have a cover-up. This is fundamental. We have a cover-up, with files removed and a crime that needs to be investigated. Will the Taoiseach follow through on that? We have victims who have suffered horrific injustice, who have a deep emotional hurt where they should have a womb. We must act. We must have a redress board and the Taoiseach has not told us if that will happen. We need to put the burden of proof on the hospital concerning the operations carried out and we need legislation. Will the Taoiseach tell us the date for the introduction of the medical practitioners Bill and the legislation dealing with records, risk management and clinical incident report forms, all of which are mentioned in the report? Can we have the dates for the legislation that is recommended and that for whistle blowers? We need an apology and a redress board if we are to have some justice here.

As I said, the Tánaiste has already made a statement today. I repeat, on behalf of the Government, that we are all very sorry. We deeply regret and are equally appalled at the contents of this report. Let us be very clear about that.

We have promised throughout, over the last seven or eight years, that as soon as the report was available the Minister of the day, in this case the Tánaiste, would meet the group and discuss the issues with it. We are going to stick to that promise and will do that tomorrow. Deputy Sargent should understand and appreciate that. These matters will be discussed with Patient Focus first.

On the findings and recommendations, while over the last number of years they have been acted upon and thoroughly investigated, now we have the complete recommendations and findings. They will be of considerable benefit in finalising the medical practitioners Bill, in the work that is well advanced on the health information equality authority Bill and in the discussions that are ongoing on the doctors' contracts and other discussions taking place with medics. They will assist in all of that work.