It’s claimed the backlog of x-rays at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin could have been cleared in a month if the work had been outsourced.

Fine Gael is calling for an independent investigation into the blunder which saw 58 thousand x-rays go unreported at the hospital.

The Minister for Health Mary Harney is in New Zealand on a St Patrick’s Day junket and has so far resisted calls to return to deal with the scandal.