I am a TD for Meath West and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is one of my local hospitals. Like so many Meath people over the years, I was born there and have had many experiences in it. Michael Shine's unspeakable depravity is not an abstract to me. It is personal, it is local and it is still profoundly shocking. There is nearly half a century between his sick acts and the wholly separate issue of the scoliosis scandal of today. It may seem strange to many people looking in that we are discussing these topics together but it is not because both scandals have so much in common despite the decades between them. Both issues have shaken the public confidence in our health service in a way that is deeply distressing. In both cases families who placed their trust in the system have had that trust betrayed. In both cases there was a complete failure of oversight and governance. In both cases there has been very little accountability or indeed answerability. In both cases those who raised questions were ignored or very least unheeded. That there is so much in common despite such a time lapse between them points to a dysfunctional system that will continue to severely disappoint those who depend on it when they are most vulnerable. We have had too many scandals whereby vulnerable patients, particularly our women and children, were failed by the systems that should have protected them. These must be the last scandals. We cannot stand over a health system that fails to learn lessons even after severe harm is done. Parents consented to invasive spinal surgeries believing they were acting in the best interests of their children. That trust was not honoured in so many cases. In recent weeks, I spoke again to a mother I know in Meath West whose child underwent scoliosis surgery during the timeframe in question. She was anxious when she first heard about the potential of there having been unnecessary surgeries. That soon turned to fear, upset, anger and disbelief - the full range of emotions. As a parent, I can understand and imagine what it was like for her. At the time, she was told it was necessary. She trusted that advice because she had no reason not to. In light of what has come to pass, she is simply wracked with guilt, not because she did anything wrong, which we know she did not, but because she feels she should have questioned that diagnosis. Imagine that, a parent who acted in good faith and from love is now carrying a burden that should never have been hers to carry. The fault does not lie with her or any of the parents. It lies with failures of oversight, governance and accountability. It lies with systems that did not escalate concerns quickly enough and with a culture that is at times too slow to challenge and certainly too slow to listen. As a Government TD, I believe our responsibilities now are immense. We must ensure full transparency. Families deserve the truth and not partial disclosures or defensive statements but the full facts. We must ensure accountability. Where wrongdoing occurred, it must be acknowledged clearly and addressed appropriately. Professional standards must be robust and oversight mechanisms must be strengthened so that no single individual can operate without effective scrutiny. Most importantly, we must reform the system in a way that will restore confidence. That means independent clinical audits, real-time monitoring of surgical outcomes, protected whistleblower channels and a culture where patient safety is the overriding priority. The Michael Shine inquiry and scoliosis review need to come to swift conclusions. They need to be robust and transparent and bring some sort of closure to those who are so deeply affected. The people of Meath and Louth, and people from across this country, deserve a health service they can trust without any hesitation. Parents should never again have to question whether a recommended surgery is truly necessary. They should never again feel guilt for trusting medical advice or putting their children into the hands of medical professionals. We owe it to those affected to ensure, not just in words but in swift action, that these are the last scandals of this kind.

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