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Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald has written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin demanding that he “act” on the new information related to the leak of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s GP contract.
The contract had been negotiated between the Government and the Irish Medical Organization and had been handed over to a rival group of GPs – the National Association of General Practitioners.
In a tweet, MP McDonald said she had “serious concerns” about the issues raised in internal Department of Health emails and stated that Tánaiste Varadkar has “additional questions to answer” about handing over the contract to her friend, Dr. Maitiú Ó Tuathail.
The Sinn Féin leader said Simon Harris, who was the health minister at the time, also had questions to answer.
I have written to a Taoiseach raising serious concerns arising from the new information obtained by Sinn Féin through Freedom of Information. Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has questions to answer about the leak of a confidential GP contract. Minister Simon Harris as well. The Taoiseach must act
– Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) January 20, 2021
Last November, Varadkar told the Dáil that handing over the GP contract was an “error in judgment” and accepted sole responsibility for that action.
He maintained that all the details of the agreement were in the public domain before April 6, 2019, and it was “most likely” on April 15 that he delivered the draft contract to Dr. Ó Tuathail.
However, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who obtained the new documents under Freedom of Information, said they showed that Leo Varadkar was sharing the GP contract with Dr. Ó Tuathail, at a time when Minister Harris could not access. to the document.
In response to that comment, a spokesman for Minister Harris said he was seeking a copy of the final contract on April 15, ahead of a Dáil debate. He received it on April 17 and was published the following month.
A Tánaiste spokesperson said that the draft contract, around April 4-5, was handed over to Dr. Ó Tuathail and added: “We understand that the Minister was looking for an updated copy after the Dáil exchanges in mid-April . “
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