Ms Eilísh Hardiman:

I thank the Deputy. I am happy to discuss this and to clarify. There was a meeting in February 2020 at Cappagh hospital between one clinician, the management of Cappagh and Temple Street hospitals and myself. That meeting was in the diary in response to an invite to the clinician to discuss Cappagh and how it could be used more to help address the waiting list issues. That meeting is in my diary. It is documented. I have notes of the meeting and the clinician and I subsequently exchanged emails about what was discussed. Devices and the nature of the relationship with springs were not discussed at that meeting. They should not have been because that is not something Cappagh hospital actually does. We discussed MAGEC rods. The reason we did was these safety notes had come out earlier and we raised it as an issue. I responded to my email specifically in relation to that, which is a separate department.

Where there is a difference is that two clinicians are saying they opted in to meet with me at Temple Street earlier that day. I have nothing in my diary about that, my office has no record of it, I have nothing in my notes about the meeting and I have no memory of it. I do not believe that meeting occurred. That is just to be clear in reference to this. I hope I have been clear about that.