Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and I apologise to Deputy Durkan for that. I will seek an opportunity to reciprocate his generosity.

I have one question for the Medical Council in respect of CervicalCheck and the duty of candour and duty of disclosure. As I said earlier, in the Dáil yesterday, the Taoiseach stated that these "are not optional". He was talking about the duty of a doctor to tell a patient about the information he or she possesses. The Taoiseach said these "are not optional and doctors may be struck off for not following them". That is a statement that I imagine would worry many doctors throughout the country. Do the representatives from the Medical Council agree with the Taoiseach's assessment that non-disclosure in cases similar to that with which we are dealing in the context of CervicalCheck could lead to clinicians being struck off?