NEITHER the Taoiseach nor the Minister for Heath have responded to a letter from the parents of the late Aoife Johnston, who died tragically in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in December 2022, despite both saying publicly that would meet the grieving family.
The family wrote to Minister Stephen Donnelly and Taoiseach Simon Harris more than a week ago, following the breaking of their silence on the death of their beloved Aoife for the first time on national TV.
In a heartbreaking account on RTÉ’s Prime Time, James and Carol Johnston described begging for help in the emergency department of UHL while watching their daughter go downhill waiting for the antibiotics that could have saved her life.
The family solicitor, Damien Tansey, told the Limerick Post that a letter had been sent confirming the Johnston’s hope to meet with the Taoiseach and Health Minister to discuss the kind of formal probe they want into their daughter’s death and why it happened.
He also revealed that there has been no direct response from either the Minister or the Taoiseach following the letter.
Stephen Donnelly confirmed that he had received the family’s communication while addressing a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee last Thursday (October 10), saying that that he would be willing to meet them.
The Taoiseach also told the media that he would meet the Johnstons.
“They have said publicly that they are prepared to meet us but they haven’t responded privately,” Mr Tansey told the Limerick Post.
The solicitor said the family’s letter outlined “the nature of the inquiry that they want … They want an inquiry that produces worthwhile results”.
The Johnstons have said they were deeply disappointed with the outcome of the recently published report by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke into the events surrounding their daughter’s death, as it did not resolve conflicts of fact or provide real answers.
Mr Tansey said that the probe the family want – a statutory inquiry -would allow these issues to be resolved and those questions answered.
He dismissed warnings from Minister Donnelly that a statutory inquiry could take a number of years and might not produce the information the Johnstons want.
“That’s just creating an obstacle that doesn’t exist,” he told this newspaper, saying that an inquiry “can be done quite efficiently and quite quickly”.
