I wish to raise an issue that has been in the newspapers recently concerning the heel prick test, which is the screening test operated by the HSE under what is known as the national newborn blood spot screening programme. It is a screening programme for six rare genetic diseases and more recently also for cystic fibrosis. The results of the heel prick tests on newborns are kept on Guthrie cards in Temple Street Children’s Hospital. I understand that the results from 1984 to 2002 are currently kept there but recently the Government announced that they would be destroyed. The reason I raise the issue today is that parents have two more weeks to seek to retain the records of their newborn child. The deadline is 31 March. The Data Protection Commissioner ruled some years ago that it was in breach of data protection laws that the screening cards would be retained.

It is lamentable.. It is bureaucratic rubbish.

I agree with Senator Norris. It is bureaucratic nonsense. Professor David McConnell, the Trinity College genetics professor, has likened the future destruction of the records to the modern equivalent of burning the Custom House or destroying the birth certificates of all born in Ireland.

Hear, hear.

He said it would be a disaster and an appalling act of cultural and social vandalism because of the enormous value that the Guthrie cards can provide for future health programmes for the Irish people generally and to add to our knowledge and information about genetic conditions in the population. It does seem appalling that the cards are to be destroyed. The critical issue at this point is to inform people of their right to intervene between now and 31 March. The HSE needs to do more to inform parents of the need to ensure that their children’s cards are retained if they wish to do so, by 31 March.

It is against the public good.

It is in the common good, but it is also very much in the interests of their children and families that the cards would be retained. I have been asked by various people to raise the issue. It is a hugely important one that has been in the news but it is critical at this point that people would act.

I congratulate the Trinity Jail Break team, a team of Trinity law students who have been raising money for charity – the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Amnesty International – by becoming involved in Jail Break – it is not really a jail break-----

That is a great relief.

-----they have to go as far as possible without spending any of their own money. Two students have got as far as Argentina and won the prize. It is a great initiative that has received a lot of publicity and raised much money for the chosen charities.