Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response but, as predicted, she has been mistreated as well as the rest of us by being given what a rather duplicitous text to read because the import of it is that they acknowledge that they knew they had to tender. I have read the transcript of the health committee meeting and they were committing to openly tendering. Now what they are trying to do is to cover their tracks afterwards by claiming what they meant by tender was this secret process of contacting a small number of suitable candidates. For all we know now they were actually looking for a crony or somebody who actually was, if you like, on the abortion side of the argument because we have had no honesty and no reassurance.

I am sure that the person they have appointed intends well but that person, on several occasions, engaged in a patter of tweeting tending to support the repeal side of the argument. That is why I called in the Seanad last week for her to honourably withdraw. How can the public have confidence in a Minister and a Department who say that they are going to appoint somebody independent and then they appoint somebody who can be proven was supporting abortion at the time of repeal? They say that they were going to tender openly and they do not do it. They tender secretly and they never tell us that they are going to do that. Then they change a press release but they do not alert the media to the fact that they have done so. It is nothing but dishonesty, I am afraid. It is an apology that they owe us, and it is not the Minister of State who should have been asked to come in and answer this today.