Scoliosis and Inquiries: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on a number of important inquiry processes that have been established or are in the process of being established by the State in the health sector, and to update Members on progress to date. I also want to put these updates in the context of the human experiences that underpin them. We must always remember that long before any inquiry is agreed, before any terms of reference are drafted and before any report is delivered, there are lived experiences at the centre of these issues. Children, parents, families and survivors are all people with very deep memories of the things that have happened to them. These people's voices and experiences must shape our work and their needs must remain central to the process.
I will begin with the Children's Health Ireland, CHI, inquiry scoping exercise and the Dignity4Patients scoping exercise. I do so because on Tuesday I had the opportunity to update the Cabinet on the progress with both of these and it is important that I update the House. Both exercises are at an early stage and I will address them in turn, before moving on to the non-statutory inquiry into the historical licensing and use of sodium valproate in women of child-bearing potential in this State.
First, the scoping exercise into potential terms of reference for a public inquiry into spina bifida and complex-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-04