Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The information that is at the disposal of the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice and Equality about the advice the former Minister for Health received on not proceeding with mandatory open disclosure is within the Government's own Departments. It can and should be published and there should be full transparency. We need to know why the Taoiseach did a U-turn on this issue when he was the Minister for Health. We need to know what advice was provided. When legislation was passing through the House in November 2017, which included sections on mandatory open disclosure, why did Fine Gael decide to vote against it? Why was Fianna Fáil convinced to abstain on that issue? These are important questions that need to be answered. The advice needs to be published at this point.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, has said that all documents will be furnished, but they are not being furnished. The cervical cancer screening audit that has been available since 2014 has not yet been published, despite the requests for it to be published. It should be published and the Government needs to ensure it is published today. The information on the US laboratories' detection rates also needs to be published today. This information has been requested for more than one week now. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health was told this information would be published. We need to restore faith and confidence in the cervical cancer screening test to ensure that every woman has confidence that it will be dealt with accurately and appropriately, regardless of where the tests are sent for analysis. Will the Minister answer those questions and the questions around Tony O'Brien who resigned last Friday? Is Tony O'Brien still receiving a salary until the end of his contract in July?

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