Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When someone in government decided to leak and spin the Scally report, the Taoiseach said at the time he was disgusted by it, and he condemned in very clear terms what had happened. The question remains whether he was sincere in this or whether he is just scared to find a culprit because the culprit could be very much part of a near-permanent obsession with spin in the Taoiseach's Government.

We should be clear about this. The Taoiseach knows, or it should be easy for him to determine, every person in the Government who had access to the report's findings. It appears that it was in the Taoiseach's office and in the office of the Minister for Health. The leaking of the report was unquestionably morally repugnant, given the significance of the issue involved. As the Taoiseach said, it frustrated the objective in the first instance of meeting with the women who have been affected by this and briefing them on the content of the report. It was also a clear breach of the confidentiality of Cabinet documents and official papers.

Would it not have been preferable to bring in an outsider with the power and authority to get to the bottom of what was a callous and cynical attempt at media manipulation? There is no question that the objective was to manipulate the public discourse on the Scally report in advance of its publication. This is not new. Leaks have occurred with a number of reports in order for the Government to get its line out first. When will the senior official the Taoiseach has appointed report to him? It has been approximately six weeks and the person surely has a timeline as to when we can expect a report on the investigation. Did the Taoiseach give any consideration to asking an outsider to carry out the investigation?

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