PAC butting in, says FF
Party health spokesman rounds on committee for ‘overstepping remit’ on CervicalCheck scandal
FIANNA Fáil’s health spokesman has criticised the Public Accounts Committee for ‘overstepping its remit’ in its investigation into the CervicalCheck scandal.
Stephen Donnelly said the PAC were following an ‘established habit’ of becoming involved in high-profile cases, even when it had nothing to do with investigating public expenditure.
He also said that the Government and politicians were failing to inform the public about the benefits of smear tests. ‘There’s a widespread misconception out there that the HSE have sat on information that could have cost lives; they did not. The women affected already had cancer. The fact that women believe that is hugely damaging to our health service, and I think the Taoiseach or the Government have failed spectacularly in mitigating that.’
He rounded on the PAC for trying to wedge its way into the CervicalCheck investigation.
‘I think the PAC has really overstepped its remit. Nobody here is investigating any issues that are to do with the spending of public money,’ he said.
‘The PAC is a powerful committee and they pretty much do what they want. It has an established habit of getting involved in highprofile cases that having nothing to do with their remit of examining the spending of public funds.’
Last week, under questioning at the PAC, HSE officials released the damning 2016 memo that revealed a strategy to deal with the media response to the scandal had been in place for two years before it became public knowledge. Mr Donnelly acknowledged that the committee had unearthed some important facts but argued that this was the responsibility of the health committee.
‘Sure, it has been helpful in some things that it exposed last week. But inevitably, if you keep pulling all the top officials at the HSE in for days on end, it won’t help them to respond to the crisis,’ he said.
‘There’s no reason why they should be doing this instead of the health committee, whose duty it is to investigate these matters.’ An independent scoping investigation, the Scally Inquiry, is already under way and will report back by June. The Oireachtas health committee is also examining the controversy.
Last week, Dr Gabriel Scally, who is leading the inquiry, criticised the ‘fevered atmosphere’ in a pointed criticism of politicians eager to be seen to be criticising HSE and health officials.
Vice chairman of the PAC, Labour TD Alan Kelly, had already rejected calls from Government for the PAC to step back and allow the Scally Inquiry to do its work.
CervicalCheck screening has resulted in a 7% reduction in cervical cancer incidence each year over nine years, and Mr Donnelly has raised concerns that confidence in the service has been disproportionately damaged by the scandal.