Mr. Tony O'Brien:

To reiterate, no party acting for the State sought a confidentiality agreement. That was said, but I want to be clear in the context of the Deputy's question. It is also evident that the case proceeded quickly and that the judge commended all parties involved for their humanity. Notwithstanding that, clearly there are lessons to be learned from the way the HSE participated in the process because matters that were in the public domain as a result of the legal process of discovery, had they been analysed more effectively in terms of the issues drawn from them within the HSE, they could have provided an additional route by which alarm bells would have rung and might have been escalated to me. I have initiated a case review of the way in which the particular case was handled from beginning to end in order that we can improve the process. I will ask the HSE's internal audit division to map out all of the steps and opportunities a different process might create for a speedier escalation and identification of issues at an earlier stage.