Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Fundamentally, there has to be accountability from a clinical perspective. That has to happen. We do have a Medical Council and we do have a framework. I do not want to prejudge anything here but clearly there are issues in relation to that dimension of it.
We have to be very careful at the same time. The Deputy mentioned a case there. That is, fundamentally, a clinical decision-making situation. I think it is wrong for Dáil Éireann to attempt to adjudicate and, if you like, ordain what should happen where there are very serious clinical issues at stake, for example in the case of the person the Deputy mentioned. I have read the background note to that case and I do not want to discuss it in public. There needs to be some sense of order here in terms of what lines we cross. Are we now going to be dictating the optimal clinical situation for someone to have surgery in every individual case? That is not tenable.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-18