Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. That is correct. We do not know the provenance of it, but I think we can accept its veracity. I noted in the news report at the weekend that there has been no refutation of this meeting. Let us take from that what we will. For the purposes of our work, this requires that HIQA - not just the executive Mr. Phelim Quinn and his colleagues but the HIQA board and Mr. McEnery, the chairman of that board - must come before this committee. We need to revisit the assurances we were given last week in terms of good governance, management of conflicts of interest, the role of the board, the role of the chairman of the board and so on. We should also extend an invitation to Mr. Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland. I appreciate that Nursing Homes Ireland does not fall under the purview either of the Comptroller and Auditor General or of this committee so we would be asking Mr. Daly to attend in a voluntary capacity.

However, it would be unthinkable that we would allow such a shocking revelation as this to go without comment and without the examination of the Committee of Public Accounts. I could say a whole lot more in respect of the issues that we need to rehearse with HIQA and with Mr. Brian McEnery, but that is more productively done when we have those witnesses before us. I propose that we call HIQA, the executives, Mr. Brian McEnery from the board and Mr. Tadhg Daly from Nursing Homes Ireland to appear without delay. We need to do this urgently. I propose that we would ask them to attend on Thursday next.