I am grateful to you for allowing me to raise this important matter tonight. Without any disrespect to the Minister of State sitting opposite, I believe we have created a precedent in that four matters have been selected to be raised on the Adjournment with the Ministers for Social Welfare, Health and the Environment and no member of the Cabinet has felt it necessary to come into the House to reply. On the three occasions that he has replied, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, indicated that he would convey messages to the appropriate Minister. The Government has shown scant regard for the Adjournment debate. When one considers that it has a large majority the Cabinet is being disrespectful. Given the hour of the night and the fact that Members regard it as a privilege when the Ceann Comhairle selects them to raise a matter of importance some committee of the House should consider the matter.
Having said that, I am seriously concerned about a report which appeared in The Sunday Times of 5 December on a study that is at present being carried out which shows that over 50 children have serious limb abnormalities, mostly arm defects and missing hands. These children were born in the east and south, in counties Wicklow, Kildare and Cork during a five year period in the 1980s. This means, in effect, that they are in clusters which gives rise to concern.
The Minister for Health should investigate these claims. It appears from the statistics that more children with limb defects are born in the east and the south than in any other part of Europe. It appears also that none of the children identified comes from a family with a history of limb defects. The parents are extremely worried and they believe it would not be as difficult in the future to come to terms with this problem if a link or common cause could be found.
I am not going to speculate on the reasons for these abnormalities; I am not an expert in the field and I am not going to pretend that I am but the Department of Health and the Department of the Environment should, if necessary, undertake a study in the form of an investigation to find out more about this problem as it is important to allay the fears of the community given that people were alarmed by the newspaper report. The question must be posed as to whether there is a link between the location and the number of abnormalities in that area. The Department of Health and the Government would go a long way towards allaying the fears of parents by instituting an investigation. The least the parents and families can expect is an explanation which can only be given following a ministerial inquiry which may shed some light on the problem.
