David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Chairman, part of that briefing note was on the front page of the Irish Examiner, which is fair enough as obviously some member of the committee gave it to the newspaper. We cannot stop that. However, I was concerned about the headline. It has to be clarified for the public. I am not saying the headline is misleading but it can be interpreted in a number of ways. It comes from a briefing note for the Committee of Public Accounts so we have a responsibility to clarify it. The headline is "Cut-off for cancer payouts imposed" and it continues that the Committee of Public Accounts is to grill the State Claims Agency on the growing scale of the crisis. The article goes on to discuss the 40 cases which are before the courts. Further down it refers to the separate payment, the expenses, being given to these women. That was set up by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and covers approximately 2,500. The Taoiseach commented yesterday that there will be a cut-off for those payments. It is important for people to note that the cut-off in the headline is not referring to the court proceedings or any proceedings that might arise from court proceedings or the work of the State Claims Agency. That distinction must be made because that could be inferred from the headline. Given that it came from a committee briefing note - which it should not have but a member of the committee gave it to the reporter - that needs to be clarified.