As I said, I regard as unacceptable the delay and the manner in which this lady was treated, having to go to so many hospitals and so on over such a lengthy period. As already stated, I will await the outcome of the investigation that has been undertaken by the health board. I would not be satisfied if we were to take it as given that health boards should have a vested interest in concealing the truth. Health boards are statutory bodies and they are accountable to their members, the Government and the Oireachtas. It would be unthinkable and unacceptable if any health board considered itself to have a vested interest in suppressing the truth.
Everyone is interested in discovering the truth in order to ensure that the family of the woman concerned may obtain the fullest information possible and that steps can be taken to ensure that a similar incident never occurs. Before we make definitive conclusions regarding whether this incident is an indictment of the overall system or whether it was peculiar to the particular circumstances that obtained, it would be prudent to await the outcome of the investigation. Incidents of this nature are not, in many instances, caused by a lack of resources but occur because certain systems and procedures did not, for whatever reason, fall into place.