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

The audit process started. This is key. We spoke about this at the health committee yesterday when I requested of Dr. O'Keeffe the audit methodology paper. This was the plan in place before the audit was started. We have not got that but I have requested it. It is key here. There are many key things here but this is one of them. At the outset of an audit, one should know what its purpose is and what one will do with the data when one has it. I do not like to repeat myself, but we spoke yesterday about the NICE guidelines which many healthcare professionals work towards. One of the core elements of clinical audit involves six ways to serve patients better. I argue that we need to look at the methodology paper to see if there was ever a plan that this would seek to serve patients better. Without seeing it, it seems obvious that it never mentioned the patient, but I might be wrong.

Is it fair to say that if Dr. O'Keeffe had not made decisions based on her feelings or made assumptions based on information received, we would not be where we are today? Is that a fair assessment?