Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. There is one last thing before Deputy O'Connell comes in. We have had all this talk about open disclosure and I am back to it again. We are utterly sceptical of the issue of open disclosure. Mr. Gleeson relies mainly on his belief that there was a policy of open disclosure which he assumed everyone was following and he had no reason to believe otherwise. I go back to the first letter I read out today - to the last paragraph of that letter from the HSE to us on 8 February. It is a full eight pages on open disclosure and where we are from the beginning to the end. The last paragraph is on moving forward. I will read this out for Mr. Connaghan. It is the last paragraph of the whole letter of 8 February to the committee from the HSE, Committee of Public Accounts document reference No. 1075. The paragraph states that work continues in relation to the matters set out in the letter with priorities for 2018 set as the roll-out of the programme to GPs and practice staff - we are talking about open disclosure; the development of guidelines for national screening services and for pharmacies; the development of open disclosure for healthcare acquired infections; a review of the national documents; the development of an open disclosure e-learning programme; and the further development of an open disclosure performance management tool for services. As such, the HSE told us in February that a priority for moving forward for 2018 was the development of guidelines in respect of open disclosure for national screening services.

It is clear the HSE knew earlier this year that open disclosure was not working. The HSE wrote to this committee to tell us a priority for 2018 was the development of guidelines for national screening services on open disclosure. When I read that as the official response from the HSE to the committee a couple of months ago, I must seriously discount everything I am hearing about people's belief that open disclosure was operating. The HSE itself did not believe it. Months later and as early as this year, it said a priority for 2018 was to develop guidelines. That implies clearly that not only was open disclosure not happening, but the HSE was only in the process of developing guidelines in relation to the national screening programme. Witnesses will understand that view given what was provided to us in writing and which was, I think, a fair, accurate and honest assessment. This was written before any of the recent controversy arose and in the calm light of day to be helpful to the Committee of Public Accounts and to reflect accurately the HSE's position to the committee at our request. When we hear that it was presumed that everyone was following open disclosure, we have to note that the HSE did not believe people were doing that because it said it was only going to implement a policy on that for this year. I am not really asking Mr. Connaghan to comment. It is self-evident. There is a lot on Mr. Connaghan's plate as interim Director General. Will he take it on board?