The Tanaiste’s admitted that all of the facts surrounding the X ray scandal at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin have not yet been established.

Speaking in the Dail, the FG leader Enda Kenny called on Mary Coughlan to clarify reports that thousands of GP’s letters referring patients for X-ray are lying unopened.

Fresh from the fall out of almost 58,000 scans going unchecked by consultants radiologists at Tallaght Hospital, questions are now being asked about thousands of unopened letters referring patients for X-ray at the Dublin hospital.

Speaking in the Dail, the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Government to clarify reports.

“This is hiving off, hands off government to bureaucratic situations and administrative situations” he said.

“We should have the Minister for Health here” he added.

In response the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan said the full facts of what happened have not been established.

“Could I say to you that there is a dispute between the hospital arising from those emerging issues that came to light last night” she said.

Meanwhile, the GP who alerted the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to the problems at Tallaght last April, Professor Tom O’Dowd, says the chairman of the hospital should consider his position.