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

The Taoiseach has said the email was published. My understanding is the email from CervicalCheck to the Department has not been published. What has been put forward is that because it is subject to a freedom of information request the Department does not want to release it. I will stand corrected if it has been published, but I would like the Taoiseach to say in the Dáil today that he will ensure it will be published before the end of the day. There is no reason it should not and cannot be published. I want that commitment from the Taoiseach because this has been ongoing for three months and the story has shifted and changed. Sometimes it is better to put the hands up on day one and admit that it was a huge error and mistake because why else would the director general of the HSE talk to the Minister and ask him to walk back? What the Taoiseach has just read is an attempt by the system to walk back from the Minister's kneejerk tweet. That is very clear from the story in The Examineron Saturday, which is very interesting, about who leaked the text between the CMO and the Minister.

There is a very short list of people who are potentially responsible. He mentioned a request from a doctor in the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP and then said:

Tony please see below confidentially. From NAGP. Would seem better to do this than be forced to do it??

That seems to be the rationale for a decision which has heaped hundreds of thousands of additional unnecessary tests on the system, causing an enormous backlog, and has delayed the rolling out of the new human papillomavirus, HPV test, which is far more precise and more accurate and would yield even better results for the women concerned. The record of the House unquestionably needs to be corrected and the Minister needs to make a comprehensive statement. Tomorrow's business in the House is about the wide Estimates in health, it is not specifically about this issue.

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