David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

According to the March 2016 memo, the strategy was to decide "on the order and volume of dispatch to mitigate any potential risks" - those were not risks to women, but to the HSE - and to continue preparing a "reactive communications response". The strategy was to minimise the number of women to be informed. It was done in the first instance by allowing consultants to do it. Only one in four did. The second strand of CervicalCheck and other people's strategy was that, if women came forward, they would be made to sign confidentiality clauses. The third part was to challenge the women through the courts. That is what happened. Mr. Gleeson is one of the few people in the State who still seems to think that it was appropriate at the time not to tell the women.

When the former director general was before us, he said that people in the organisation had failed. He was talking about people who allowed a situation to develop in which women were not informed. It strikes me that Mr. Gleeson is one of those individuals. I am concerned that he still holds the view that he took the right decision at the time.