Parents get aggressive on organ retention inquiry

PARENTS at the centre of the organ retention scandal will draw up a plan of action to break the impasse in the investigation next week.

Parents for Justice (PFJ), which represents 800 families, accused Health Minister Micheál Martin of a mistake of “Noonanesque proportions” in refusing to put the Dunne Inquiry on a statutory footing.

PFJ representatives together with their legal team will meet on Monday to draw up a plan of action designed at putting further pressure on Minister Martin to scrap the current inquiry and replace it with one that has powers to seek documents and compel witnesses to appear before it.

The group was established in 1999 after families discovered their deceased children’s organs were removed and retained by hospitals without their knowledge or consent.

Last December, Minister Martin told PFJ representatives he was always committed to a two-stage inquiry. He would not make a decision as to whether the second phase would be established on a statutory or non-statutory basis until the first phase was completed.

PFJ spokesperson Fionnuala O’Reilly said the minister had told them his door would always be open to them and they intended to hold him to that: “We would hope we would be in a position soon to meet with the minister again to discuss the current impasse. It certainly is in nobody’s interest to allow this stalemate to continue.”

In early October, PFJ walked away from the Dunne Inquiry and at their EGM last November all their members agreed to request the return of all personal documents submitted to the inquiry. “I know that many families received all their documentation back from the Dunne Inquiry over the Christmas holidays. That was a very distressing experience for them,” said Ms O’Reilly.

Because of a confidentiality clause, it is not known how many parents are still co-operating with the inquiry. PFJ estimate that around half of the 402 submissions received by the inquiry were from their members.

Up to November 7 last one health board and one hospital had not made a submission to the inquiry