Harney proposes expert to end organ retention inquiry

TANAISTE Mary Harney is to bring proposals to Cabinet shortly which will allow the organ retention scandal inquiry to be completed by an expert, her spokesman said yesterday.

The Health Minister was severely criticised by opposition parties in the Dáil yesterday and the Parents for Justice Group for calling a halt to the Dunne Inquiry into organ retention before it finished its work. The inquiry which has cost the taxpayer almost €20 million over the past four years will be wound up in March.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey hit out at the Government for halting the inquiry without full details of the scandal being investigated. “The parents of involved deserve full disclosure on the organ controversy,” he said.

Green Party spokesman John Gormley also criticised the decision to wind up the inquiry prematurely. “This is yet another debacle by the Department of Health,” he said. Parents for Justice spokeswoman Fionnuala O’Reilly called for a formal statutory inquiry.

“Some parents will otherwise never now know what happened to their children.”

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Government to say when it will bring forward proposals to complete the inquiry.

“Will the Government honour the commitment of former Health Minister Micheál Martin to set up a statutory inquiry if the Dunne Inquiry did not reach a satisfactory conclusion?,” he said. However, Ms Harney’s spokesman insisted yesterday that this is not the end of the organ retention inquiry.

“Minister Harney has indicated that she will bring proposals to Cabinet shortly that will allow the work to be completed and an expert will be brought in who can analyse all the material gathered to date,” he said.

There has been an extraordinary litany of delays and missed deadlines in this inquiry to date which has been operating for four years with a back-up legal team.

A similar inquiry into organ retention in Northern Ireland mainly by medical experts was completed in 15 months and cost the taxpayer €600,000.

Ms Dunne’s first report, which will be handed over to Ms Harney on March 31, will only focus on just three hospitals. But 20 separate investigations into other paediatric and maternity hospitals still remain to be carried out.

Last September the Government decided that the Dunne inquiry should furnish its final report not later than the March 31, 2005. Inquiry chairman Anne Dunne was advised that the Department expected her final report by that date.

“Ms Dunne had indicated that she would provide her report on paediatric hospitals in December, 2004, but regretfully this did not happen,” a Health Department spokesman said.

Ms Dunne then indicated that she would need until the end of 2006 to complete the other two phases of the inquiry into maternity and training hospitals. But the department told Ms Dunne they could not wait until then to bring in legislation for best practices.

Senior Counsel Anne Dunne could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press and she has indicated that she will not be commenting publicly on the report in advance of publication.