Ruddle inquiry - How many more babies must die?
It transpires that, five weeks before her death, Health Minister Micheál Martin and his department had been warned by management at Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, that Government cutbacks were forcing crucial operations for children to be cancelled.
If prompt action had been taken to sort out this deplorable situation, baby Róisín's life would have been saved.
Tragically, she died in her mother's arms within hours of being sent home after her heart surgery was postponed because of a shortage of specialist nurses to care for her after the scheduled operation.
From the outset, the department's handling of this situation left much to be desired.
It seems it took no action despite being informed in clear and unequivocal terms that surgery for another young girl had to be cancelled because of mounting pressures on the hospital's intensive care facilities.
This pressure was a direct result of Government cutbacks.
Furthermore, it required a plea from Róisín's parents to convince Mr Martin that nothing short of an independent inquiry into the events surrounding her death would bring all the facts to light.
Gerard Ruddle and Helen Quain-Ruddle felt an initial report, ordered from the Eastern Regional Health Authority by the minister immediately after the tragedy, left many questions unanswered.
To his credit, Mr Martin spoke to the family and assured them he had no difficulty meeting their request.
But surely it should not have taken such a demand from heartbroken parents to highlight the limitations of the report conducted by the hospital and the health authority.
Despite subsequently declaring his commitment to ensuring all relevant facts be made available, there is no getting away from the reality that it took an impassioned plea from the child's parents to trigger a more meaningful inquiry into all the circumstances leading up to her death.
Nor is there any doubt that the minister and his department had already been told scheduled operations on sick children were being cancelled because of the Government's cap on employment combined with the repercussions of the cutbacks imposed by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy.
In such grave matters, the public interest is paramount and must be seen to supersede political or economic considerations.
With the lives of sick children in the balance, adequate funding must be provided to ensure surgeons can carry out crucial operations without having to look over their shoulders to find out if there are enough intensive care nurses on hand to look after gravely ill patients.
It is time the Government awoke to the reality that its belated conversion to fiscal rectitude which involves forcing people to don the hair shirt in order to pay for its pre-election excesses must never again take precedence over the lives of gravely ill patients.
This Government has Róisín Ruddle's death on its conscience.
The harrowing question on the lips of every parent is how many more babies must die as a result of cutbacks?
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