Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In a way, it is ironic because I suspect that I would regard some of the procedures they are involved in as unethical. Nonetheless, I defend their right to not be accused of being unethical if they communicate certain beliefs about the state of things that they believe these to be true in good faith. I can only conclude, if Senator Sherlock and I are speaking about the same letter, that the Minister regards those people as having acted unethically in communicating in the way they did. The Minister is either saying they said something that they knew not to be true, or that they were reckless in saying something; in other words, that they had constructive knowledge that they were being were reckless in saying something that would have been shown not to be true had they checked their facts. The Minister obviously wanted to go beyond saying that they were mistaken. He wanted to, in some way suggest, impugn or at least put it out there that they might be acting dishonourably. That is quite a serious thing to say about people but, obviously, the Minister did so under privilege. Yet, if I were a clinician and I put something in the letter that I believed to be true, I would not be happy with the Minister for Health going around and saying that I had acted unethically or even suggesting that I had acted unethically.