The Minister for Health Mary Harney was warned by a senior doctor in a letter over two years ago that radiological services at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise were being provided "by people who have no expertise in this area".
Consultant surgeon Peter Naughton told the Minister on July 4th, 2005 that the service in the hospital was "a shambles".
"Women are having unnecessary surgery because of a total lack of decision-making. Women referred to a specialist clinic deserve to be seen by people who are experts in that field. This is not the case and nothing has happened to encourage me that things will be different next year or the year after," Mr Naughton wrote.
He said he would not like his wife to go through the service at the hospital.
Ms Harney told the Dáil last night that she had referred the surgeon's concerns to the HSE.
She said Mr Naughton's letter went beyond general policy comment and although it had not raised specific cases or mentioned specific clinical staff, it clearly required the attention of the HSE and clinical management.
Ms Harney said department officials had advised Mr Naughton in August 2005 that his letter had been sent to the HSE for urgent examination and appropriate attention.
"It was also brought to the attention of Prof Donal Hollywood, consultant radiation oncologist, who was then regional director of cancer services in the midland region and who was involved in the discussions on this issue in that capacity with hospital management and Mr Naughton," she said.
Ms Harney also said the complaint raised by Mr Naughton was that "the service was being run with locums".
"A radiologist was subsequently appointed. I acknowledge the radiologist was one of the locums, but the person was not appointed by me or by a political process. The person was appointed by a public appointments commission under rules laid down by Comhairle na nOspidéal."
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said last night he would be asking HSE chief Prof Brendan Drumm how Mr Naughton's concerns were followed up.
Prof Drumm is to appear before a meeting of TDs and Senators in Leinster House today.
Meanwhile it has emerged that not all the 3,000 mammograms carried out in Portlaoise which are now the subject of an independent review were read by the same consultant radiologist.
The HSE said the review "involves all mammograms carried out in the period from November 2003 to August 2007 inclusive, irrespective of who carried them out".
However the bulk of the mammograms are understood to have been read by a consultant who was sent on leave at the end of August. It was indicated at the time that women whose mammograms were being reviewed had nothing to worry about because the consultant had been over-cautious. The HSE described the problem at the time as one of "over-diagnosis" of breast cancer, with some patients being sent for extra tests unnecessarily.
To date it has emerged that eight women, whose mammograms were read at the hospital, were given the all-clear, when in fact they had breast cancer.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said yesterday that neither he nor his Government could take responsibility for the 120,000 staff in the health sector.
The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny earlier said what went wrong at the Midland Regional Hospital was the result of a failure of the system put in place by the Government. However, Mr Ahern denied it was a system failure.
Mr Kenny asked why triple assessment had not been provided in Portlaoise hospital. The Taoiseach said the difficulty was that the cancer was not seen when the mammograms were read.
"Triple assessment only applies where it is read and then referred on," he said. However, last night one of the country's leading cancer specialists, Prof Niall O'Higgins, took issue with the Taoiseach's definition of triple assessment.
