Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This document was changed. I presume it was changed through ongoing discussion after this date between the IMO and the Department. If the Tánaiste wants to suggest that it was not changed - I do not think that is the Tánaiste's defence anymore - that is what one of his Ministers suggested yesterday, however. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, out to bat for the Tánaiste on national radio, told RTÉ that no other amendments were made to agreement, subject to the Tánaiste providing the confidential copy to his friend, Maitiú Ó Tuathail. That simply is not true. The Tánaiste has confirmed that now. Why would he give a document where it was not completely tied down to a friend, who belonged to a rival organisation to the IMO? The IMO was engaged in good faith in negotiations with the Department of Health and the HSE. It was a rival organisation which was dependent on GP membership retention and signing up to it. It was dependent on the financial subscriptions paid to it. Why would the Tánaiste do that, knowing that the document had on its front cover the words "Confidential" and "Not for Circulation" and in the Tánaiste's handwriting an acknowledgement that the document was not finalised but subject to amendment or changes? What was the Tánaiste's motivation?

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