Kelly to probe who knew about HSE cancer memo

THE Public Accounts Com- mittee will investigate if the HSE screening oversight committee knew of the damning memo warning of possible negative publicity about cervical cancer, the committee’s chairman has said.

‘By its very name, it is the Public Account’s Committee, and we are going to seek accountability,’ Alan Kelly TD has vowed. ‘That is what is needed here, that is what Vicky (Phelan, Emma (Mhic Mhathúna) and others have requested. We are the only constitutional committee and we need to get quick answers that will actually help the work of the Scally Inquiry,’ Mr Kelly told RTÉ’s This Week show.

‘We need to get quick answers into who knew what and when, which will bear fruit, I believe, for the Scally Inquiry.’

Mr Kelly said his committee intends to question HSE officials on the background to the Cervical cancer check, which has domi- nated headlines in recent weeks.

‘I find it quite unbelievable that an issue of this scale, that the minutes in the Department of Health did not refer to it. I don’t know what they do talk about inside those meetings in the department but they were not referring to this, which should have been the biggest issue on their desks.

‘I also want to find out about the senior management team of the HSE, when were they all aware of this issue and what did they do, because I don’t think we can just have accountability for Tony O’Brien, we also have to have upwards and downwards accountability, so who knew what and what did they do,’ he added.

Mr Kelly’s comments comes as it emerged that one of the labs in Ireland used by CervicalCheck was allowed have some cervical smear tests performed in Britain.