Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is funny, because the information did not get into their hands. A procession of very senior, very well paid people come before this committee and say that all they ever wanted was to share that information, yet mysteriously that information does not get shared. One wonders how that was happening, regardless of hindsight.

We asked for the breakdown from the laboratory this day last week, and at the time it was indicated that it would simply be a matter of hitting a button and that we would get it very quickly. We still have not received it, which is very worrying. The witnesses have told us how interested they are in sharing every bit of information with us. Mr. Connaghan has now explained that it might take some time to get it, but it strikes me as a bit bizarre that that information is not to hand.

Perhaps the witnesses might be able to explain the tendering process to us. It appears that around the time concerns were being raised the tender came up again. An expression of interest process was offered to the two outsourced companies which were already doing that work. Was this reviewed by anyone at any stage? We know what the Minister for Health at the time, Ms Harney, said about it; that it was great value for money and that it was a third cheaper. Was it reviewed in terms of quality, and did the review include the 60,000 files that were outsourced in 2007 to Quest Diagnostics?