Former minister for finance and current EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy wrote to the then minister for health in 2003 asking him to investigate a way for a controversial American plastic surgeon, Dr Michael Sachs, to carry out operations on disfigured children.
The New York-based Dr Sachs is being investigated following the death of Limerick woman Kay Cregan last month after she underwent plastic surgery in his Manhattan clinic.
According to an RTÉ Primetime report last night, Mr McCreevy wrote to then minister for health Micheál Martin in January 2003 asking him to investigate the possibility of inviting Dr Sachs to carry out operations on children "who are severely disfigured and who cannot afford to undergo plastic surgery themselves".
In the letter obtained by Primetime, Mr McCreevy said he had been approached by a charitable institution in his native Co Kildare regarding the possibility of Dr Sachs, "an eminent American cosmetic plastic surgeon", coming to Ireland for a few weeks every year to carry out in the region of 10 operations for free.
The letter caused confusion among senior medical staff in the main children's hospitals in Dublin. Two consultant plastic surgeons wrote to the chief executive of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children pointing out that "the Irish health service does in fact provide reconstructive plastic surgery" and that they were "unaware of any children who have been refused treatment because they cannot afford it".
"We find this [ Mr McCreevy's] suggestion rather baffling," wrote surgeons David Orr and Michael Earley in their letter which was copied to Mr Martin and Mr McCreevy. A spokeswoman for Mr McCreevy said last night that "he had no comment at this time".
Mrs Cregan (42) died in New York on March 17th following a facelift operation carried out by Dr Sachs. Results of the postmortem proved inconclusive but according to the New York Times, the matter is still under investigation.