David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not speak for anyone else. I cast no aspersions on whether Dr. Herity has any conflict of interest – I do not believe he does. I have not doubted Dr. Herity's professional experience. Let us park that for a moment, if we can accept that much. That is not at play.

What is at play is what Dr. Herity has stated in his report and what he has said in his opening statement. We have a responsibility to put robust questions to Dr. Herity on behalf of the people we represent. I am keen to be clear on that.

I will go back to what I said to Dr. Herity earlier. Dr. Herity glossed over it and somewhat ignored answering the question. However, Dr. Herity cannot ignore the implementation of his report or the selective implementation of his report from the logic of it. That would amount to standing logic on its head. Essentially, Dr. Herity is telling us that one laboratory is good enough for the south east to service planned work and that all emergency work should go to Cork. In other words, what Dr. Herity described as the drip-and-ship effect should be in operation 24-7 for people who live in the south east. If an emergency arises, the person goes to Cork or Dublin. In the case of planned work, the person goes to Waterford.

The problem is that the Government does not agree with Dr. Herity. If the terms of reference stipulated that 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PCI cover in University Hospital Waterford was non-negotiable and was not going to be touched, would that have affected the outcome of Dr. Herity's report? How can one laboratory service the planned work, as well as the PCI work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? Dr. Herity's report maintains that it cannot.

I wish to go back to the demographics referred to by Dr. Herity and population mass or criteria that he used. The Higgins report states that University Hospital Waterford should be the regional provider of invasive cardiology services for all of the 500,000 people of the south east. Page 18 of Dr. Herity's report cites, rightly, that patients in Carlow and Kilkenny are going to St. James's Hospital in large numbers and that patients in north and south Tipperary are going to University Hospital Limerick and Cork University Hospital. The reason is that we have only one laboratory. If we had a second laboratory in Waterford, then those hospitals could refer patients to University Hospital Waterford. The whole logic and recommendation of Dr. Herity's report was, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophesy. If we only have one laboratory, how can we take patients from Kilkenny or Carlow? How can we take patients from Tipperary?

Dr. Herity missed the point entirely in respect of the criteria. He ignored the promise made and the policy set out – it was policy – to the effect that University Hospital Waterford would be the regional provider of invasive and interventional cardiology for the entire south east – for 500,000 people.

Will Dr. Herity respond to the specific issues of population mass, whether, if we had a second lab, we could take those patients who are being transferred elsewhere, and whether, if it had been made very clear in the terms of reference that the 9 to 5 PCI was non-negotiable, that have put a different interpretation on his recommendations?