The head of the HSE has been accused of treating the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with contempt.

It is after the organisation's director general Tony O'Brien wrote to the committee informing it of a further delay in a report over the Grace case.

Mr O'Brien told the committee last month the report was imminent, and withheld an apology to Grace's whistleblowers until then.

This morning TDs including David Cullinane and Sean Fleming were annoyed at yet another delay to that report.

They suggested that it is treating "Grace with contempt" as well as the public.

Deputy Cullinane observed: "Obviously we need this report for all sorts of reasons, but the director general failed to give a fulsome apology to the service provider, pending the outcome of this report. So it's very important that we get that as soon as possible.

"He did say categorically that it would be very soon - led us to believe it would be almost immediate. And here we are, almost a month gone, and no report."