I welcome the inquiry into the prescribing of valproate, known as Epilim, to pregnant women without informing them of the harm it was likely to do to their unborn children which was announced last week by the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I thank the Minister for keeping his word. When is the inquiry going to commence? Will the Minister engage with OACS Ireland, the families impacted and Epilepsy Ireland in designing the terms of reference in order to establish who knew what and when and why nobody did anything to stop it? The great tragedy of the valproate scandal is that the harm caused to approximately 1,250 children between 1975 and 2015 here, in addition to thousands in France and the UK, was totally avoidable. Can the children, who have now received diagnoses of foetal valproate syndrome and foetal anticonvulsant syndrome now receive the domiciliary care allowance? Families with a diagnosis are getting turned down and this is not right.

I understand the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has initiated an inquiry into the sodium valproate issue. I will talk to him about the timelines, which I am sure will be published in due course.