Expresses concern at Government’s proposal to dissolve St. Luke’s Board and for the management to be transferred to the HSE:-

Deputy Alan Shatter:   ” I am greatly obliged to the Ceann Comhairle for this opportunity to contribute and I thank my colleague, Deputy Creed, for sharing his time with me.

I was anxious to briefly speak on this legislation because of the many people in my constituency of Dublin South, across Dublin and from outside Dublin who have used the facilities in St. Luke’s, who admire the medical care available there, who regard it as a centre of excellence in the area of radiotherapy, who greatly fear for the future in the context of the Government’s intention to transfer the facilities and services provided by it to St. James’s Hospital and who have fears, in the context of the future management of that hospital, not only about how matters will develop but also about its accessibility and the nature of relationships with patients. Continue reading »

An edited version of the following article by Alan Shatter TD was published in the Irish Independent on Wednesday 9th June 2010

Let’s agree on the following propositions. The people of Gaza are entitled to a proper standard of living and everything possible should be done to facilitate reconstruction of homes, commercial and industrial property, schools and other infrastructure destroyed or damaged in the conflict between Israel and Hamas 16 months ago. Also, action is required to facilitate creation of sustainable employment for adults and provide real hope for the future of Gaza’s children. People living in Gaza are entitled to the same human rights and freedoms as us and should not be forced to live in fear of a fundamentalist repressive regime. The people of Gaza should not be perpetually dependant for their basic needs on provisions from UNRWA and NGO’s. No further conflict should take place involving Israel and Gaza which results in injury or death of any resident of Gaza.

Let’s also agree on the following propositions. Continue reading »

An industrial dispute in the East Coast area has been ongoing since 2002 and has resulted in ongoing non-compliance with the Child Care protection guidelines.

 Fine Gael Spokesperson on Children, Alan Shatter TD, has called on the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews TD and the HSE to state how many of the 188 children who have now been acknowledged by the HSE to have died either while in care or about whom there were concerns resided in this area and were affected by this dispute. Continue reading »

Fine Gael Children Spokesperson, Alan Shatter TD today (Friday) said:
“The information published this evening by the HSE yet again starkly illustrates the extent to which our child care and protection services have tragically failed children. It is not acceptable that 151 children about whom social services had a child protection concern died without any record being properly maintained with regard to their deaths and that it has required a sustained campaign by Fine Gael to obtain this information. It is a scandal that 84 of these children suffered ‘unnatural deaths’, the details of which were never properly investigated by the HSE or the former Health Boards and in respect of whom no reports were published. Continue reading »

Deputy Alan Shatter:      Like everyone else, I welcome Mr. Dillon. He has been through an enormous trauma and we appreciate his being here today.

As I have said on many other occasions, the land blockade of Gaza by Israel is entirely wrong. Within a short time of the conflict that concluded in January 2009, everything possible should have been done to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of normal commercial life. This policy has prevented not only the return of normal commercial life but the reconstruction of medical facilities and schools which were destroyed, as Deputy Timmins and I saw when we visited Gaza in March or April 2009, after of that conflict.

The events that took place this week, which should never have taken place, were a consequence of an ill-conceived policy which was correctly described by one of the other speakers at EU level as politically counter-productive. It is humanly counter-productive, because if we are ever to restore normality to the region, we cannot ignore the reality of the 1.5 million people in Gaza. Continue reading »

Fine Gael Children’s Spokesman Alan Shatter TD said today: ‘It is essential that the legislation which the Government has promised to enact, to ensure that all relevant files and records of the HSE and the former health boards are furnished to the review group into child deaths, include provisions to ensure full HSE co-operation with Nora Gibbons and Jeffrey Shannon’. Continue reading »