Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That underlines that it was considered to be important. I appreciate that the Minister is busy, but the note was not read until the following day. I still find it odd that officials in the Department knew for ten days but did not feel obliged to bring the matter to the Minister's attention. It makes me wonder about how many other cases there are of this nature that the State Claims Agency might fight vigorously and aggressively and which might end with a gagging clause, meaning that we would never find out about them. The fact that ten days elapsed is a source of serious concern. The Minister received the note and then read it the next day. As the Department had had it for ten days, 11 days had elapsed at that stage. At any stage did the Minister ask if there were more women involved? Did he ask if it was symptomatic of a wider problem within the health service? In that regard, to be fair, the Minister has shared the information he had with the House. He is correct in suggesting there would be uproar if he had not done so. I fully appreciate that, but officials had all weekend to review it and we still cannot say with certainty what the numbers are. The Minister is making his best guess and Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly was trying to work it out, as I was, on the back of an envelope. That is absolutely outrageous. I have used the screening service and all weekend was taking calls from friends and family members who wanted to know if they could have faith in it. I told them that the questions would be answered in the Dáil, but the Minister has come here and given us his best guess. The serious incident management team had all weekend to do nothing other than review the matter. Does the Minister think it is acceptable at this stage that we still cannot say anything with certainty?

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