Taoiseach, I want to raise an extremely tragic case. On Tuesday, 24 September, Mihai Marandici died of sepsis in Temple Street Children’s University Hospital after being transferred by ambulance from Tallaght University Hospital. He was seven months old. His devastated parents, Nicolae and Olesea are looking for answers. Their solicitor contacted me this morning on their behalf.

At 6 o’clock on the Sunday, they brought their baby into Tallaght Hospital with a high fever and six hours later they were told he was fine so they took him home. By 3 o’clock on Monday they were back with a GP’s letter saying he needed to be treated urgently. More tests were performed but no medication other than Calpol or Nurofen was given until around midnight, nine hours later, when he was finally given antibiotics. Mihai then began to develop red spots on his body. His parents repeatedly rang for assistance but nobody came. At 5 a.m. on Tuesday he was transferred to Temple Street hospital where he died a few hours later. The family were told he had meningitis.

His Dad said:

He was so awesome. He was a bright and beautiful boy. What happened to him? We need to know. Could he have been saved?

The family needs to know and we need to know. Would the Taoiseach agree that there needs to be an independent investigation into this?

I absolutely would. I join with the Deputy in offering my sincere condolences to the family of baby Mihai on their tragic loss. Children's Health Ireland, CHI, has advised the Department that a review has been commissioned in relation to Mihai's care, which is a normal process under the HSE's incident management framework. It also says that it will engage with the family on the terms of reference and to discuss the level of involvement that the family wishes to have in the review. It will also engage with the family to offer supports in what is an extraordinarily difficult time. It is not appropriate for me to comment further on Mihai's case while that review is underway and a coroner's inquest is still pending but I do obviously want to offer my deepest sympathies to the family. I do believe that the family needs to be involved in that independent review and in what that looks like.