Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is about accountability and providing full information. It is about responding comprehensively to the fact that there was a disgraceful breach of trust and that women were denied information they should have had. Yesterday, Tony O'Brien apologised for that happening. Some days ago the clinical director of CervicalCheck stepped down. We have also seen the senior official in charge of CervicalCheck move aside and a new team, the serious incident management team, move in to take over CervicalCheck. We are now in the process of trying to establish all the facts. In my judgment, while we do that we need to ensure the appropriate management structures in the HSE are best placed to provide information and facts to the Minister and to an independent inquiry when it is set up.

The truth is that Tony O'Brien has less than 12 weeks left in his contract. From what he said yesterday, he wants to focus in that time on being as helpful and constructive as he can be in establishing the facts here for the benefit of everybody. That is what we are trying to do. Rather than looking for heads, we are trying to look for the truth, establish the facts and, in doing that, in time, we need to hold people to account regarding their own role in the decisions that were made which led to this breach of trust. We should make that judgment when we have all the facts available rather than doing that in a way that would give the impression of immediate accountability because the person at the top would be standing aside. We have an obligation to ensure that we establish the truth and facts. Tony O'Brien's focus on providing as much information as possible and putting systems in place that can co-operate fully with that independent investigation is probably the best way that he can assist in this process, rather than stepping aside from it.

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