Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Tony O'Brien told a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health earlier today that he will not be standing down as director general of the HSE. While Mr. O'Brien was making that declaration, I received a call from Emma Mhic Mhathúna from Kerry. She asked me to raise her case with the Taoiseach. Emma is 37 years old and is the mother of five children aged between two and 15 years of age. She received a clear result from a smear test in 2013 but she now knows that the result was, in fact, a false negative. She received a diagnosis of cervical cancer after a routine smear test in 2016. She only learned of the false negative for the previous test as this scandal has unfolded.

She wants the Taoiseach to know that she is terminally ill, that she will present on Friday for a medical assessment at which she expects she will be given an estimate of how long she is expected to live. Emma wants the Taoiseach to know that she has been told to get her affairs in order and to make provision for her five children. Emma is extremely angry. She says her faith has been shaken to its core. She tells me that her anger outweighs even her fear of dying. She wants the Taoiseach to know that she wants accountability. She has asked me to tell him that she cannot understand why he is sitting on his hands. She cannot wrap her head around why he has not done the very first thing that is needed to ensure the start of accountability. I told the Taoiseach yesterday, as I have said before, that people outside of this place see two Irelands: they see a well-paid senior public executive sitting in a committee room brazening things out and then they see a terminally ill woman in her living room who knows she does not have much time left, who knows - or at least suspects - that it could have been very different and who is left wondering how her children will cope.

I could make all the political reform arguments in the world as to why Tony O'Brien must go; I have made some of them previously. I could make all the good governance and public policy arguments as to why this man needs to go. We could go back and forth on that all day long. However, that all pales into absolute insignificance when one compares it with what a woman like Emma is feeling and articulating today. The buck must stop somewhere and accountability must start somewhere. Emma has no confidence in Tony O'Brien, the public and the women and families affected have no confidence in Tony O'Brien, the Opposition has no confidence in Tony O'Brien and three of the Taoiseach's own Cabinet members have said he should stand down, yet the Taoiseach and his Minister for Health refuse to act.

When the Taoiseach gets to his feet, I do not want him to answer me; I would like him to speak to Emma. I want him to answer Emma Mhic Mhathúna. I want him to explain to her why he is allowing Tony O'Brien to continue as usual, why he refuses to hold him to account and why he is ignoring her voice.

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