Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I agree with a lot of the Chairman's summary. Certainly, no one, not least the women involved, would want the original slides to be exposed to any kind of damage. That would not be in anyone's interest. Quite rightly, there is a protocol. My understanding is that the protocol was deemed not sufficient by one solicitor who had experience of contesting a case in the courts and that this same solicitor, who has a number of clients, went back and suggested some amendments to the protocol within a week - this was in September - and has not been engaged with since. It is important to say that. Essentially, the HSE is stating, "It is our protocol. It cannot be amended." My understanding is that the difficulty is that the resolution of the photograph of the slide that the HSE proposes would be not sufficient to show up the abnormalities. What use is that? This is the kernel of the problem. Going back to our relying on information when a public body comes before the committee, we were told there was a 22-day turnaround. It was as if we were inventing a problem. This problem has been acknowledged in this letter and it will be further acknowledged next week. I hope the matter does not have to go to court. There would be absolutely zero point in going to court if there were a satisfactory outcome to the matter. It strikes me that there was zero discussion of there being a problem here when we had representatives of the HSE before the committee. I really take exception to that. We must be able to believe what people tell us when they come before us. The word "candour" has been used here on numerous occasions. We would not have had to keep going back looking for information if it had all been outlined in the first instance. There continues to be a problem, however, and I think the public would be surprised at this, given that the failure, or part of the failure, in the first place was not providing the information that was needed. It must be given in a format that is usable as well.