Dr Gabriel Scally has revealed that he has not yet been paid any fees for his work on the CervicalCheck inquiry.
Responding to reports that the work of the inquiry had been paid €1.3million, Dr Scally told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show that the fees paid to date have gone towards paying for “a significant number of people” — medical and legal experts and investigatory trips to laboratories in the US.
There were still some outstanding payments, he said, and he was hopeful that they would all be paid this year. “If anything is left then I might get something.
“I’m not motivated by money.
“I don’t know how much will be left. It was an honour and a privilege to do it. I would have done it for nothing.”
Simon Harris wanted me to be fully independent and in order to do that I had to set up a company.
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If there was any money left he said he would use it to support other projects in which he was involved such as enquiries in the North about the rights of patients. “That’s what the money goes for.”
Dr Scally explained that to carry out the work of the inquiry he had set up a company which then invoiced the Department of Health as work was carried out. He had received every support from the Department of Health, he said. Former Minister for Health Simon Harris had been “particularly helpful.”
“Simon Harris wanted me to be fully independent and in order to do that I had to set up a company.”
There remained the issue of the databases used to store all the documents related to the inquiry, he said.
The information provided by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly in response to a parliamentary question about the cost of the inquiry had been factually correct, he said, but it couldn’t be further from the truth that he was a millionaire.
“I wasn’t consulted before the stories were written, I would have gladly answered any questions.”
