Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank all the witnesses for joining us here today. Many apologies have been issued in Ms Nugent's opening statement. She has said "sorry" a good few times to the families affected. Of course this is needed due to the trauma of the scandals that have come out. The test of those apologies will be the lessons that are learned going forward. I note that Ms Nugent admitted to a colleague earlier today that, in hindsight, she should have consulted the Comptroller and Auditor General and the NTPF on the unpublished report. She has claimed that the HSE was aware of the existence of this report since March 2022. The HSE has denied this. As recently as yesterday at the health committee Mr. Bernard Gloster, head of the HSE, firmly denied it. It is his view that this report was never brought to the attention of the HSE. How do we have a situation where CHI can say it sent on this very serious report with very serious issues in it - Mr. Gloster has accepted there are very serious issues in it - and Ms Nugent claims CHI sent this report back in March 2022, yet there is no evidence of this? Can Ms Nugent provide evidence of this?