Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty I have, and I will wrap up on this, is that we were told this morning by the director general that the memo he received indicated to him that a communication process was under way to inform the women. That is what was said. When he was pressed, he said that if the process had been carried through, there would have been no woman who was not informed. Nowhere in any of these three documents does it state that the women must be informed. One memo says "if" or "when" they are informed. The other ones talk about a communications process to the clinicians. I do not understand how the director general can say that he was under the impression that women were going to be informed. He has admitted this morning that is a systems failure. He is the person accountable for that systems failure, but he will not take responsibility for it.