On the second anniversary of her death, the family of Co Clare teenager Aoife Johnston has repeated a call for a statutory inquiry into her death from sepsis at University Hospital Limerick.
The family is seeking answers and accountability, their solicitor Damien Tansey told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
A statutory inquiry is the only authority with the necessary resources to provide answers, he said.
The 16-year old Leaving Cert student from Shannon, Co Clare died on December 19th 2022, from meningitis two days after presenting at the UHL emergency department with symptoms of suspected sepsis and during which her condition worsened.
“The State has failed the Johnston family. To date, no answers have been forthcoming. The most revealing of all the processes to date was the inquest. And there are very severe restrictions on what an inquest can do in terms of finding fault and in terms of vindicating anybody.
“So the very least the Johnston family are entitled to, given the failure of the state to vindicate and protect the life of their daughter, is to provide a process of the kind that will produce answers.”
Mr Tansey acknowledged that a number of attempts had been made to provide those answers including the Hamilton Report and then the inquiry by Mr Justice Frank Clarke.
However, even Mr Clarke himself, “at the outset of his report, had indicated that he couldn't make, for example, findings of fact, he couldn't make adverse findings and he couldn't even resolve conflict where there were conflicting accounts from people that were involved in this tragedy at the coalface.
“We are aware that certain processes are underway with a view to ensuring that there is accountability. And you saw what happened in the court recently where the medical director took an action against the state. He was suspended from his job as medical director and we saw the outcome of that recently. He's back in his post and the state had to pay three quarters of his legal costs.”
There was no reason why a statutory inquiry would take years, as had been claimed, said Mr Tansey. “There is absolutely no reason why it should take years. This inquiry won't be in public.
"It will simply be a statutory inquiry where the chairman will be entitled to call witnesses, to subpoena witnesses, to take evidence in circumstances where the people in focus will have the opportunity to challenge the evidence.”
All processes involving the family “are now at an end”, he said. “We're awaiting a decision on the part of the new government to conduct a statutory inquiry, and so that there is no doubt about this the Johnston family will meet the new Minister for Health and or the Taoiseach to indicate what their requirements are in relation to that inquiry.”
