Vol. 573 No. 5
138 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding the Dunne inquiry which is investigating the insensitivity of post mortem procedures at a number of hospitals in the retention and disposal of human organs; if there is a legal obligation on hospitals to co-operate with the Dunne inquiry; and if not, his plans to establish a full statutory inquiry in this matter. [25941/03]
Since the beginning of 2003, the inquiry has been concentrating on the investigation of the post mortem policy, practice and procedure of the three main paediatric hospitals, i.e. the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. Up to mid-October, the inquiry had heard 56 hospital and non-hospital witnesses at oral hearings and had accumulated almost 3,500 pages of transcripts of oral evidence. While there is no legal obligation on hospitals to co-operate, the chairman has informed me that the inquiry's non-statutory nature has not significantly hampered its substantive work. I have no plans to alter the status of the inquiry at this time.
