Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, and that is the only sentence I will read from it. What is really troubling before we even start, and I say this to all public bodies, is that when the witnesses left the room they may have been in doubt about whether what was said was accurate. The HSE should have reverted to us with a statement setting out the exact position and clearing up any confusion that arose.

Representatives of the HSE would not even be here today if the State Claims Agency had not written to us. If it had not written to us, we would not know we had not been given fair evidence with full candour. If representatives of public bodies ever leave the committee room, go back to their offices and think that perhaps they did not explain a particular point, they should write to us and correct the record straight away rather than leaving us to pick it up from a third party. I think the witnesses understand that general principle. I say it to all representatives of public bodies who appear before the Committee of Pubic Accounts.

At the meeting of 17 May, Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked questions about who in the HSE, CervicalCheck and the State Claims Agency attended various meetings or spoke with people. People watching proceedings will not remember that particular exchange. We will ask the communications unit to play an extract of the meeting on screen so people will remember the precise issue we are talking about.