Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

We need to tease that out. What are we saying about the letters that have been sent out? Yesterday a word was used, namely "recall". Once a number is announced, people will draw all sorts of conclusions from that number. My understanding is the letter has gone out to children who have been operated on, potentially as far back as 2010, or to parents in respect of a child. The important point is to get the audit published. CHI has been asked today by the Minister to publish the number in any event, as has Cappagh. This is because CHI and Cappagh are involved here. The core issue is the audit, not the number of letters sent out to a cohort of people going back over a number of years. The letter I have read is generic. Others may have got different letters. I do not know about that and would not have access to that. The bottom line is that I would hope we will have the audit before the end of next week.

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