Parents are still being kept in the dark over the clinical audit of hip surgeries for children, the Dáil has heard.
It comes as more than 2,200 letters have been sent to parents of children who had dysplasia of the hip surgery offering routine follow-up appointments.
Children's Health Ireland has sent 1,757 letters to parents of children who had the surgery at Temple Street and Crumlin, with 503 letters also issued by National Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital.
An early recommendation from the audit, which has yet to be completed and published, was for letters to be sent to parents offering routine follow up appointments.
These appointments are being arranged over the coming months.
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty told the Dáil this afternoon that the draft audit was shocking, adding that it found 60% of surgeries in one hospital, and 80% in another, were unnecessary.
But, he said, the audit will not give parents the one answer which they need and that is if the surgery was necessary or not.
Already families are having to go to hospitals in the US and London to get answers, Mr Doherty said.
Minister for Education Helen McEntee responded by saying that all sides are working to get answers and politicians are extremely concerned that any child would have had an operation that was unnecessary.
She said there is no suggestion that the letters sent to more than 2,000 families means that every single child had surgery that was not needed.
"Any support that children need... will be provided," she promised.
Labour TD Marie Sherlock said the Government's handling of the controversy has been "shambolic".
"The failure to provide the figures to the Dáil in recent days has been extremely frustrating and ultimately this comes back to the need for honesty and accountability."
However, she did not criticise the decision to send letters to parents, as she said the requirement for transparency meant the notification could not wait until the ongoing review was finalised.
The Dublin Central TD called on the Minister for Health and CHI to clarify whether the ongoing review into unnecessary hip operations in children is having an impact on the provision of surgery.
She has written to the minister and the chief executive of CHI asking for answers to specific questions including whether any surgeon or staff member has been suspended or had their work curtailed on foot of the initiation of the review.
She also asked whether there had been any other changes to the use of the multi-disciplinary team to review all operations such as how surgical decisions are undertaken and approved.
Ms Sherlock also said that she understood that a business case had been put forward for the filling of four consultant posts and she asked whether these had been approved.
Social Democrats TD Cian O'Callaghan called on the Government to confirm when parents will have the hips audit report "in their hands" next week - saying affected families are "being kept in the dark".
Mr O'Callaghan said the Government should immediately confirm what day the report will be published and what its key recommendations are in order to calm concern among families.
He said the information currently in the public domain "has had to be dragged out" of the Government by the Opposition, and that "it took until yesterday [for the Taoiseach] to reveal" that more than 2,200 families have been contacted, and to confirm the audit will be published next week.
Ms McEntee said "nobody wants parts of an unpublished document" made public before it "goes through the Minister".
"There was never any doubt the Minister does not want to engage," she said, adding that in her view the current publicly available information was released at the request of the Government, not the Opposition, to assuage concerns.
"Once the report is received, the first thing we will do is reach out to families," she added.
Read more:
Over 2,200 letters sent to parents over children's hip surgeries
CHI letter amid hip surgery review a 'kick in the teeth', says mother
The Minister for Health has said it is very difficult for her to comment on the audit until she sees the completed report.
Speaking in Galway today, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she expected to have the competed audit "imminently".
The minister said she had not received the CHI commissioned report and had no ability to verify any draft findings.
"They may very well be accurate but I am not in a position to say that and so that is why it is so important that I wait for the formal report," she said.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said it was important that the completed findings be discussed and that there was a plan in place to respond to them. She said she would publish the report and ensure there were supports in place to assist parents and children who may have been impacted by the issues under investigation.
She said that would be her focus, as soon as the report was in her hands.
The Minister emphasised the need to ensure the process was independent throughout.
"It ceases to be independent if I start setting specific dates. I am asking for the report to be brought to me as soon as possible. I understand that will happen next week."
She said the audit was a sample over a two year period and would not represent the "universe of families … who may have gotten surgeries or may have been advised to have surgeries". For this reason, she said, it would be important to have the completed report to see "indicative trends and also what recommendations are made".
The minister also said she had positive engagements with the Irish Pharmacy Union on the provision of Hormone Replacement Therapy last weekend and was hopeful this would "get to a very positive point" in the near future.
The union had expressed concern about the manner in which a State funded scheme for HRT will operate.
Its introduction has been delayed until 1 June, following a lack of agreement between pharmacy representatives and the Department of Health.
