A TD has expressed concerns around what he has labelled “serious and immediate governance questions” around gender healthcare services – including services involving children and young people.
Cork TD for Independent Ireland, Ken O’Flynn, was speaking regarding a HSE response to a Parliamentary Question put to Minister for Health, Jennifer Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
The TD told Gript that the HSE response submitted to a number of PQs confirmed that structured national data collection systems for gender healthcare services are not currently in place for children, young people or adults.
The reply from the HSE also confirmed that no national audit or review has taken place to date other than the report following the interim Cass Report, and that the updated model of care is expected in Quarter 4 of 2026.
Deputy O’Flynn said:“The HSE has now confirmed three facts that should concern every parent, every clinician and every Minister.
“There is no structured national data collection system for gender healthcare.
“There has been no national audit or review, apart from the limited 2023 interim Cass-related review,” he said, adding: “And the new clinical model of care will not be completed until Quarter 4 of 2026.”
“That means Ireland is operating in a highly sensitive area of healthcare without the basic national systems needed for proper oversight, audit, outcomes monitoring or public accountability. This is not acceptable.”
HEALTH MINISTER SHOULD PUBLISH CASS REVIEW RESPONSE
The TD stressed that when services involve vulnerable children and young people, the State must have clear governance, clear clinical standards, clear safeguarding rules, and clear national data.
“At present, the HSE response shows too much is being deferred into the future. Audit will be considered later. Monitoring will be considered later. A model of care will come later. A data infrastructure may come later,” said O’Flynn.
“That is not good enough. The Minister for Health must now answer a simple question: who is clinically and politically accountable for this pathway today, before the new model of care is finished?”
The TD insisted that he was not raising the matter as “an ideological issue,” but as a governance one, as well as a safeguarding issue and a public accountability issue.
“No area of medicine, especially one involving children, should operate without proper national data, audit, and oversight.
“The public deserves clarity. Parents deserve confidence. Clinicians deserve guidance. Children deserve protection.”
Deputy O’Flynn said he is now calling on the Health Minister to publish the HSE’s final Cass Review response, set out interim safeguarding arrangements, and confirm when a national data and audit system will be put in place.