The Women’s Health Task Force have rushed the decision to choose at Random a Task Force to represent the Endometriosis Community without any background knowledge or interview process.

Be sure to email the Government to ask how they decided choosing “at random” is acceptable and a responsible way forward for such a serious matter.

The letter reads as follows;

“As you know the Minister for Health held an Endometriosis Patient Forum held on 1st September 2025. At the patient forum the Minister committed to the establishment of an Endometriosis Advisory Group under the umbrella of the Women’s Health Taskforce. 

The Department of Health’s Women’s Health Programme is now establishing such a group which we hope will comprise of advocates, policy makers and clinicians.

We aim to have 4 endometriosis advocates on the group.  As you can imagine we have a larger number of people interested in sitting on this group than the 4 places on offer.

Before selecting and finalising the membership, I would be grateful if you could confirm that you:-

can commit to attending a monthly meeting for approximately 1 hour (hybrid to facilitate attendance) for a period of one year;
are willing to work together with other group members in a collaborative, open, respectful and effective way to drive progress for improved outcomes and experiences for girls and women in relation to endometriosis;
as an advocate, will seek to represent all the voices of women and girls with endometriosis using your own personal health experiences as a foundation for this advocacy.
will be in a position to provide expert advice, oversight and guidance on endometriosis service developments and supports.

If you indicate that you can meet the above criteria, your name will be added to a list and 4 people will be chosen at random from that list.  We will let you know whether or not you have been selected as soon as possible.

I would be very grateful if you could respond to this e-mail by 3pm on Monday as the Minister is eager for this group to be established as soon as possible.”

I have been informed that a task force has already been assigned without any consultation or background checks done on some of the individuals.

As a longstanding patient, advocate and campaigning over a decade this raises serious questions and concerns and I encourage everyone to email the Ministers Office, the women’s task force and TDs to query the decision process as choosing “at random” is irresponsible and unacceptable!

On July 15th Sinn Fein presented their Motion to the Government in a Historic Two Hour Debate developed by a team who worked incredibly hard to make this happen.

The Motion was Rejected by 88 TDs  -  the response from that rejection lead to a Public Forum on September 1st in the Department of Health.

On September 29th 2025 the Stormont Assembly passed the Sinn Fein Motion.

My Healthcare Needs and the Healthcare Needs of the entire Community is not a political game of chess, it’s the reality for many of us and that reality needs to come with responsibility and the selection process that the Women’s Taskforce set out is rushed and irresponsible and needs to be made up of people who have the expertise and knowledge.

I urge the community to voice their concerns as a matter of urgency and request how the 4 members were chosen!

Mind blowing that our Own Women’s task force have chosen “advocates” randomly without doing their due diligence.

Email: WomensHealthTaskforce@health.gov.ie

Jennifer.CarrollMacNeill@oireachtas.ie