Seanad report:Members on both sides of the House called for the attendance of the Minister for Health or the Minister for Justice to explain what was being done about allegations that some family planning clinics were acting illegally in the provision of counselling.
Ronan Mullen (Ind) said a newspaper had uncovered “appalling malpractice in State-funded crisis pregnancy counselling agencies, and in particular the Irish Family Planning Association”. What was at issue was the endangering of women’s lives. Counsellors had been shown to have acted illegally and with gross disregard to the safety of women in their care.
The Health Service Executive had said it would conduct an investigation. “This raises further questions since the HSE itself is implicated in the malpractice in some cases and in the illegal activities.”
He understood that the activity in question had been reported to the Garda.
An additional complication was that the newly appointed head of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, was a former chief executive of the IFPA.
David Norris (Ind) asked if it was appropriate to impugn the reputation of people who could not defend themselves in the House.
Mr Mullen said he did not want to impugn anyone’s reputation. But he thought it was inappropriate that the Minister for Health had not yet commented on this scandal.
When he went on to ask why the IFPA was continuing to promote an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Seanad deputy leader Ivana Bacik (Lab) said he was impugning the reputation of an organisation.
Mr Mullen said he was concerned that there were certain people who did not appear to want the truth to be properly dealt with. He hoped that the relevant Oireachtas committee on health and children would be prepared to ask hard questions of the HSE and of the agencies involved in regard to this matter.
Fidelma Healy-Eames (FG) joined Marc MacSharry (FF) in calling for an independent investigation into what was going on in family planning clinics around the country.
Labhras Ó Murchu (FF) said he was concerned that the only inquiry under way was of a low-key internal nature.
Aideen Hayden (Lab) said it was important to note that certain matters that went on in this country did so because we were not open and transparent around matters of women’s health.
Paul Bradford (FG) said he was not interested in the HSE being the investigator, he wanted that body investigated. He also wanted the family planning association and other clinics called before the Oireachtas health committee to answer questions. We could not run away from this possible national scandal. Feargal Quinn (Ind) said he thought they should hear from the Minister for Justice on the matter.
On another issue, Eamonn Coghlan (FG) said steps should be taken to hold parents responsible legally, morally and financially for their children’s action online.
The recent death of a young schoolgirl had led the Children’s Ombudsman to recommend that schools take more affirmative action to prevent cyber-bullying, he said.