Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not a target; I am just pointing it out. A lot of the narrative in the media and in here has been around who knew what and when, and it was Vicky Phelan who used that phrase initially, if I remember correctly. It seemed to be very clear from all the documentation we received that there is no evidence this was ever escalated to ministerial level. From the evidence, I think we can see that is the case. Dr. Holohan should please intervene if I am not stating things that are factually correct because it is very confusing. What I am confused about is this idea that we moved from the period of February-March 2016 up to summer of 2016, when there was an issue with the lab getting involved and this pause was put on, and then we moved into the summer months where, it is my understanding, those within the Department thought the process was going ahead and there was nothing flagged to them to suggest there was any reason to be alerted to anything untoward, yet we are told here today they did not know that the treating clinicians had a problem with telling patients the information.

It was Senator Colm Burke who mentioned how many clinicians were involved - I think the number was 29. It is a small community. They talk, and there are medical people within the Department and within the HSE structure. I do not understand how, even on the grapevine, it did not filter down that there was an issue among the consultant clinicians who were treating women who had active cancer, given this was a retrospective look-back at their smears. If that is the case, the fact the HSE was operating in a vacuum is even more apparent. It seems incredible to me that some doctor at some conference, or some gynaecologist, would not pick up the phone and say, "Did you get a letter from CervicalCheck making you telling whoever about whatever?" That element seems incredible. I am not accusing anybody. I am just trying to get to where we are probably going next in the story.