David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was not a plan to inform all women. It was a plan not to inform all women. Bear with me. It was a plan to inform some women, where we give consultants discretion. We know then from the meeting, about which we talked earlier, in September 2017 that clinicians had a concern that they were being asked to do it. We know only one in four women was told. We then know that of those women who came forward that they were asked to sign confidentiality agreements and if they did not, it would be dragged out through the courts. That was the strategy. That is what was known within the organisation at the highest level. It is very clear from all the information we now have. When all of that was going on, nobody thought of telling the Minister. I put it to Mr. Breslin that the reason they did not want to tell the Minister was that they wanted to talk this up as a small problem and not a big problem because if it was a big problem, action would have to be taken. That is why the Minister was not informed.