In December 1988 the Tierney committee was set up to examine the need for a medical genetics service in Ireland and to recommend how such a service should be organised. Its report in 1990 recommended that "the medical genetics centre in Dublin should be based in Our Lady's Hospital Crumlin", and that other centres should be established in Cork and Galway.
The genetics service at Crumlin is and has always been under the governance of the hospital. Staff are employees of the hospital, and the service has always been accountable to the CEO and under the governance of the hospital’s Board in the same manner as other clinical departments. There are several services at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin that have a national remit, including outreach and shared care services with other hospitals, but which are not regarded as having an identity separate to that of the hospital.
Crumlin has recently made a decision to discontinue the separate identification of the service as the National Centre for Medical Genetics. This was done in the interest of clarity on governance arrangements. As with all patient services, governance rests with the organisation that provides the service - if a patient attends Crumlin for genetic services, Crumlin is accountable and if the service is provided by another hospital, that hospital is accountable.
A review of the governance structure for this service is included in the Terms of Reference for the Steering Group established to develop a plan for a National Network for Genetics and Genomic Medicine, as recommended in the 2014 report by Professors Dian Donnai and Bill Newman. The Group will meet for the first time on 3 March and is expected to complete its work this year.
