Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much to all of the witnesses for coming in here today.

Can I go straight into the issue of open disclosure and the failure to provide that open disclosure? When the information became available that there were inconsistencies in the results, at what stage was there a decision taken not to share that information? Was legal advice sought by either the HSE or CervicalCheck, on that?

The second question I have relates to when the first legal letter came in on this matter and who it came to. There would have been an exchange of legal correspondence before proceedings started. Who did it come in to and why did that not set off alarm bells at that stage about notifying the other people who were involved? Why has it been the case that we have had to wait for it to go all of the way to court before we have now decided to notify all of the other people involved? Can these matters be clarified? When did the letter come in? Why were alarm bells not set off immediately that this is an issue that was going to come to the fore at some stage, if not in this case, then in other cases?

The other issue I want to move on to - and I am aware that Mr. O'Brien has spoken about reassuring people - is that the problem out there now is that people do not feel reassured. There is going to be huge increase in the number of people looking for repeat smears. What system has been set up to deal with the increased volume of repeat smears that are going to be taken and analysed? Has any process been looked at at this stage in relation to that area as regards ensuring that, if there is an increase in volume, that they can be dealt with in an expeditious manner?

Finally, my understanding is that there are 15 clinics. Some of those clinics had raised concerns with the people directly at the top of the organisation over the last number of years. Can it be clarified whether there were regular meetings with the principal people involved in these 15 clinics, or was it all by email and by telephone? I have received information to the effect that some people in the clinics based around the country had expressed concerns about issues as they arose but found that their concerns were not being taken on board. Was there a mechanism where regular meetings occurred on an overall basis between the 15 clinics and the people who were in charge of the entire programme?