Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an improvement.

We sought the quarterly risk register from the HSE on previous occasions.

When the CervicalCheck issue hit the street, so to speak, after the court case 14 months ago, the issue did not appear to be on the risk register. The former CEO said he was not aware of the issue until he saw a report of the court case on television either on the day of the meeting or the previous day. On page 178, there is a paragraph on risk management which states that as a result of the issues identified by the Scally report in the area of risk management, the HSE established a working group, which is detailed in the section. It states that the group's mandate is to prepare proposals in regard to risk management in the HSE for consideration by the incoming board risk committee. It appears the HSE's risk register did not pick up on this issue in advance. Who can speak about improvements to the HSE risk register? What will be the next issue to arise? The CervicalCheck issue did not appear on the risk register because once that case was lodged, it was passed over to the State Claims Agency on the basis that the HSE was finished with the matter and would send a cheque to the State Claims Agency when it had a figure for costs. The reason for having a risk register is to learn from past mistakes and prevent future issues arising. That was a by-product in this case. If the CervicalCheck cases has been managed internally to some extent, there would have been a greater awareness of the issues long before they became public. They should have been on the HSE's risk register before the High Court case. That is an observation. Can anyone comment on that? The witnesses get the point.