Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2021-10-14
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

I thank the Deputy. I know this is a very important issue. It affects some of my constituents and some of the Deputy’s. I have read up on it but I have not had an up-to-date briefing for quite some time, so I am reluctant to answer the Deputy’s questions in full for fear of giving her misinformation. I will ensure that my office is in touch with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, today to see if we can get her a more detailed reply in writing.
In terms of the format of the inquiry, there are advantages and disadvantages to the statutory and non-statutory approaches, as the Deputy knows. The Scally report, for example, was non-statutory but was done quickly and, I think, was done very well. A statutory one would take a lot longer but would have the advantages of particular powers of compellability and being able to make particular findings that could not be made by a non-statutory one. I am not sure what the Minister decided in that regard.
I also hear the question the Deputy has asked in regard to the services being made available to these patients. Again, I will be in touch with the Minister for Health about that and will make sure the Deputy gets a detailed note on it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-10-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-10-14