Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

If I understand correctly, when Maitiú Ó Tuathail contacted the Tánaiste and asked him for the contract, the Tánaiste did not check with the IMO, the Minister for Health or the Department of Health to alert them to the fact that he intended to give it to Maitiú Ó Tuathail. Could he explain why this was the case? Presumably the Tánaiste knew, if Dr. Ó Tuathail was contacting him, that he could not get the document through other channels. He was coming to the Tánaiste and the Tánaiste did not check with the Minister, Deputy Harris, the Department of Health or the IMO whether this would be a problem for them. It must have occurred to the Tánaiste that it might indeed be a problem, because if it was easily accessible, Maitiú Ó Tuathail would have got it. Was it possibly that the Tánaiste intended to give it to a friend, whether he was a good friend or not? Has that not something to do with the reason the Tánaiste did not check with IMO, the Minister for Health or the Department of Health, because the intention was to give it to a friend? Is that not the problem here, and quite a damning problem, that the Tánaiste was doing something behind the backs of the other Government members and the group with which the Government had negotiated a contract and he did not really want to let them know what he was doing because he was giving the document to a friend?

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