Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on what Mr. O'Brien said about people getting a phone call. It makes sense that a phone call was made advising people of a trip, asking them if they would like to go on it and, if they did, the tickets would be left for them at the airport. That should have set off serious alarm bells for officials. They would have known that SIPTU was not paying for it. It was the SIPTU fund being funded by the HSE. Union members around the country are not paying contributions to send HSE officials on trips. There is also the matter of the retired official who went on these trips. That is reason I have pushed the point that this could not have been a coincidence.

A retired official went on study trips with colleagues for whom he used to work. He was sitting beside them on the plane. Did that not ring alarm bells? That is the kind of point I wish to make about what the hell was going on and that surely people must have known. The exchange has been frank and robust. I wish to put on record that I do not hold Mr. O’Brien or Dr. McLoughlin personally responsible for anything that has happened. I completely accept their bona fides and that this will not happen again but surely suspicions were raised that a lot more was going on than a failure of governance?