Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. The final question I want to ask is around this conspiracy of silence because this is not an isolated case of one official or one doctor. The HSE has a 300 page policy document on open disclosure and yet what we have here is evidence of widespread and, I would argue, systematic withholding of patient information. We know there is a circular stating that doctors should exercise their judgment. We know that before 2015 there was no policy of even telling the doctors and that that decision was only taken in 2015. We know that in 13 different hospitals, doctors did not tell their patients. We know that Vicky Phelan's doctor got into correspondence with the HSE and CervicalCheck about who had responsibility.

It is worth pointing out that Ms Phelan made the point in an interview that when she was told, she was told there was a query. Perhaps she was being told in an open and forthright manner. We are in no position to judge. We are not privy to that conversation but Ms Phelan's assertion was that even when she was told, she did not register what she was being told. She used the word "query". She was told there had been a query. It was only when she was handed her own patient notes and was sitting in a waiting room that she discovered what was meant by "query" was that there was an error in her screening in 2011, which is very different from a query.

At this point, what does the Minister know in terms of who knew about this? The question Ms Phelan has asked is who knew what, and who decided what? I know this is early days but in terms of the HSE, we know that a senior official within the Limerick hospitals group was brought into the dispute between the doctor and CervicalCheck. We know that was escalated to the head of acute hospitals for the entire HSE. At a very senior level within the HSE, therefore, at least one person knew. Does the Minister have a sense now of how widespread was the knowledge within the HSE?

Does the Minister have a sense of whether the Department was aware not specifically of Ms Phelan's case because we know that it was but of the suppression or even withholding of information from patients like Ms Phelan?

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