A brief addendum to a clinical review was what finally brought to light Peter Naughton's letter to Micheál Martin, writes Martin Wall
FOR THE last few months and right up until midway through an Oireachtas committee hearing on Thursday, the Department of Health had denied it knew anything about a letter sent by surgeon Peter Naughton to then minister for health Micheál Martin in 2002 regarding cancer services in Portlaoise.
The Irish Timesfirst learned of this correspondence last November, shortly after this newspaper revealed details of the contents of another letter which Mr Naughton had sent to the current Minister for Health, Mary Harney, in 2005.
In this letter, Mr Naughton told Ms Harney that radiological services were being provided by people who had no expertise in the area. He said women were having unnecessary surgery because of a total lack of decision making and he described the service as "a shambles". However, the department denied that there was another letter on its files.
Ms Harney also told Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly in the Dáil that she was unaware of any such correspondence.
Mr Naughton has not commented at any stage on his correspondence with the department.
In December, The Irish Timessubmitted a request to the department under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking access to correspondence between Mr Naughton and the Department of Health/Minister for Health in relation to breast cancer services in Portlaoise.
The department formally replied in January that the letter to Ms Harney was the only such correspondence on its files.
In recent weeks, this newspaper had learned from reliable sources that the letter to Mr Martin may have emerged in the course of the various inquiries into the Portlaoise breast cancer controversy.
On Friday of last week, the department, in response to a query from The Irish Times, again repeated its position that it had no knowledge of any such letter.
However, last Wednesday, an addendum on the final page of the clinical review of mammography services at Portlaoise, carried out by Dr Ann O'Doherty, stated that she had received correspondence from Mr Naughton saying he had been in contact with Mr Martin and Ms Harney.
On Thursday at the Oireachtas committee hearing, Dr Reilly asked Ms Harney specifically about this reference.
Shortly afterwards Ms Harney said that she had just received a note from a senior HSE official saying that she had the letter in question.