Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on the point Deputy Donnelly raised with Dr. Henry regarding the decision-making process and how it seemed to go around in circles. I am sorry for coming back on this. Did it not occur to Dr. Henry that, in the context of the delay in making the decision about getting the information out, someone should have sought legal advice about whether we could run into difficulties about not disclosing this information and the delay in making the disclosure? Did it concern Dr. Henry that there might be a legal problem caused by not making the disclosure in a timely manner? The next issue is the time it takes to make a decision. We are going over a period where no decision was made. Did that not concern Dr. Henry? He was the clinical officer. Will this be the process in the future regarding any decisions that are to be made? Will it go around the house and back again to the same place where it was two years previously? Did that occur to Dr. Henry at the time? I know he was not clinical director but surely it must have occurred to him that this delay was not acceptable.

My second question concerns the role of clinical director. The clinical director was in situfor quite a period. I know we are going back to 2008 when this process was set up. The masters of the Coombe, Holles Street and the Rotunda have seven-year contracts. In fairness, any of these roles are extremely demanding. The person is dealing with a huge number of people and a number of different units throughout the country. Likewise, a master of one of the maternity hospitals faces a huge number of demands. Does Dr. McKenna not think the way forward might be to stipulate a defined period for the director's job? The director can reapply when the job comes up for review but that process would be there. I am just looking at the way forward.

What kind of timescale would be involved if we decided tomorrow morning that we wanted all smear tests to be dealt with here? I know the Coombe is carrying out some analysis in this area in the sense that it is providing a service. My understanding is that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland had a laboratory but that this service has now gone out to private enterprise. I stand open to correction on that. The process is being provided in Ireland. How long would it take to put in place the requisite number of people with the skills necessary to deal with all of the smear tests that are done here? Would it take two, three or four years? What kind of period would it take us to build up those skills? It is important to look at that. Given that we have been sending tests out and using US companies for over ten years, surely we should be looking at trying to keep all of this work within the Irish jurisdiction.