Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I failed to address one part of Deputy Murphy's previous question but will do so now and then respond to her latter question. My understanding is that the decision in the CervicalCheck programme following the audit was that the results should be communicated. It is clear that the failure was one of not following through on that decision. Far too much time appears to have been taken up in discussions and possibly disputes about who should do the communicating. However, I have seen correspondence which does not involve arguments that people should not be told but, rather, discussion of who should tell. That is not an acceptable explanation for what happened.

In fairness to those involved, I have not seen evidence that there was a decision not to communicate, but certainly there was a failure to communicate.