Unacceptable

Minister for Health Dr James Reilly has apologised to the families of the four babies who died in Portlaoise Maternity Unit, and said that the nature in which they were dealt with was “dehumanising”.

“What people seek is an acknowledgement that something went wrong, an apology that it went wrong and the promise that it won’t go wrong again because we’ve learnt from the experience and things will change

“But that clearly didn’t happen here in this situation,” he said.

The minister found it “totally unacceptable” that the families involved were not aware of the investigations that had been carried out at the time.

He has called for a full report into the deaths and has said that he will take the required action following the analysis of this report.