Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

None. Okay. Nobody is being held accountable. This is a problem for me. I will finish on this thread if I can. I want to put on the record a communication that was received by Dr. Keith Swanick, who is also a Member of the Oireachtas, from one of his colleagues. It reads:

How can you and your colleagues stand over the cervical controversy. We are inundated with requests for smears with no formal guidance even how to process them, how to claim remuneration. We cannot offer any form of reassurance to any patient so all smears need to be repeated. Can we trust the results of repeat smears? What's the lab they will be sent to?

I think this captures for me the reality here. Mr. O'Brien has taken no action against any member of staff. He has admitted he was not told things when he should have been. We know there were system failures. In calling for Mr. O'Brien's resignation, I have to say it may well go to Ministers, taoisigh and the head of the State Claims Agency for further calls of resignation. Mr. O'Brien and the Ministers are commentators on a national crisis. We have no leaders. That is crystal clear. Mr. O'Brien has admitted that no action has been taken against anybody. There is nobody accountable. Three weeks into the crisis, Mr. O'Brien is not even in a position to tell us who was supposed to tell him but did not do so. There is a policy of sitting back and letting everything take its course. The people and accountability come last.

The problem is that all of those here, most of the political establishment and it seems the Government served the system, not the people. That is why I again appeal to Mr. O'Brien, in the interests of the women in Ireland, to show them what their taxes have purchased - accountability on their behalf.