Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Deputy does, for different reasons. I do not recall Mr. O'Brien having a conversation with me. That is not to say that he did not. We had many conversations. The reality of the situation is that I take my medical advice from the chief medical officer, who is a doctor. I had lost confidence in the management of CervicalCheck. I do not wish to speak for Deputy Lisa Chambers but I presume she had, too; certainly most women in the country and most politicians had. I had expressed no confidence in it and was taking my advice from my Department officials, who stepped up to the plate and were doing a superb job in the middle of a major public health crisis of confidence. That is where I took my advice from. I have heard this put forward, too. The moment I received advice from my officials was in October. I accepted their advice on that day and we communicated our decision to the HSE on that day in writing. The HSE said it wanted to continue it until the end of December for operational reasons, which was logical because people had booked their tests. When my officials advised me to stop the test, which was after the publication of Dr. Scally's report, we conveyed our decision to stop it immediately.