Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on Claire Healy's case. I know it was discussed at length at the committee two weeks ago but I want to come back to a statement we got from the HSE. Due to the long wait in the public system and that she was high-risk, Claire Healy went private. She is a CervicalCheck patient and went to a hospital. She was sent a letter which stated:

Thank you for referring the above patient to the CervicalCheck colposcopy clinic at University Hospital Kerry. Unfortunately, we are unable to give this lady an appointment as her referral smear was done in the private sector.

That is not about prioritisation or that it will take a bit longer to see her. Her doctor was told in writing that the hospital will not be seeing this patient. The HSE statement stated “it cannot direct acute hospitals’ colposcopy on matters relating to screening” whereas it clearly has. Since then, the HSE has come back and said that it accepts, with hindsight, that the email from the official may have led to confusion.

Will the HSE go further and accept that instruction went out from the executive that was flat-out wrong? Calling it confusion is an insult to the hundreds of women who desperately sought help and were told they could not have it because of a clear instruction from the HSE. Can it be accepted that this instruction was wrong?