Tom Murphy and health committee concerns
Tributes were paid to playwright Tom Murphy, then the exchange moved to Rose Conway-Walsh's comments about the health committee and a disputed accusation that was challenged by several Senators. She insisted documentation showed escalating problems and that the matter could not credibly have escaped ministerial attention.
I wish to convey my condolences to the family of Tom Murphy. I pay tribute to Tom Murphy for his wonderful works and creativity. Rural Ireland, in particular, is much better off due to the life of Tom Murphy. I commend all the work he did to highlight the torture of emigration over the decades. He had an understanding of what it was like to tear families and communities apart. Unfortunately, the same thing is still happening today.
I am currently attending meetings of the health committee. It appears that the more we pursue this debacle and scandal, the more questions are raised and the fewer answers are given. On the one hand we are being given an apology, with people saying it is terrible that this has happened and apologising, yet it is obvious from the documentation that was produced in the last number of days that some of the same officials who appeared before the committee last week did not disclose in a transparent way what they should have disclosed. They are still fighting to keep secret the information on who knew what, and when people knew it. I do not believe that the Minister did not know about that. I am speaking personally. I do not believe it, and the more I hear the more I do not believe it. I cannot for the life of me figure out-----
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I am not saying anything about the Minister.
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I am taking ownership and saying I do not believe him.
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She is offering an honest opinion and she is right.
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The reason I find it incredibly hard to believe is that I have been looking at the documentation, which is about how to conceal this, dripping out the information and having the headlines and everything ready. There is also the language used. To think that it would not have escalated to the Minister is beyond credible. We have the documentation from some of the meetings - undoubtedly we do not have it from all of them - and the progress updates for the audit. In each of them, the numbers were increasing all the time and it was obvious to everybody reading them that there was a problem. The language was about how to drip feed this, address the headlines and the legal process for it. That the boss, the man in charge at the top, would not have known about this or would not have been told is beyond belief.