asked the Minister for Health if in the study into cot deaths recommended by the Medico-Social Research Board, rural and urban areas are included.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cot Deaths Study.
26.
The Medico-Social Research Board have commenced a pilot study to test the feasibility and methodology of a more comprehensive study of infant deaths, which would pay particular attention to sudden infant deaths. This pilot study covers all of Dublin city and county, both urban and rural. A decision on what areas should be included in the more comprehensive study cannot be made until the results of the pilot study have been analysed.
Would it be fair to suggest that this pilot study is a delaying tactic and that the full study recommended last year by the Medico-Social Research Board is being put on the long finger?
No. This whole matter is being overseen by the Medico-Social Research Board. What we are doing now is their approach.
Bearing in mind that the study is confined to Dublin, is it not obvious that the original recommendations of the Medico-Social Research Board are not now being implemented, that some minor study is being carried on in the Dublin area by one member of the Board?
The position is that the Medico-Social Research Board were asked by the Department as far back as February 1978 to examine this problem. They set up a committee consisting of members of the board, with a paediatrician, a paediatric pathologist and a public health doctor from outside the board. The committee examined the situation and had wide-ranging consultations inside and outside this country. They submitted a report to the Department in October 1978 and that report recommended the pilot study. They recommended that the deaths of all infants under two years of age from Dublin city and county be looked into with a special in-depth study of every death for which no obvious causes had been established. We are doing exactly what the Medico-Social Research Board want done in this regard.
Is it not a fact that the recommendations of the board were submitted to the Minister in October 1978, that in January 1979 he stated that the matter was one of great urgency, and that all that has happened is that in May of this year a pilot study was started?
I should like to point out that a question on a subject does not necessarily mean that every aspect of it can be raised.
There is a reference in the question to the study recommended by the board. The point I made is that the pilot study is not as recommended by the Board.
The question asks if rural and urban areas are included in the study of cost deaths recommended by the Medico-Social Research Board. The simple answer to that question, which I could have given, is "yes", but out of courtesy I gave much more detailed information to the Deputy.