Valproate inquiry delay
Deputy Conway-Walsh criticised the continued delay in launching the promised valproate inquiry and quoted Baroness Cumberlege on the suffering involved. The Tánaiste said he did not know when it would begin but agreed it should start and would seek a full answer from Health.
It has been two years since the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, gave a 100% commitment that he would have an inquiry into the valproate scandal. Fourteen months ago in the Dáil, he promised that inquiry would commence but it still has not. When is it going to commence? I remind the Tánaiste that when an inquiry was conducted in the UK by Baroness Cumberlege, she stated: "I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades." Some of the families who endured for decades are in the Gallery today. I want the Tánaiste to tell them when that inquiry is going to start. That is the least they deserve.
