The HSE is asking people to keep 999 and 112 for emergencies only and says out-of-hours doctors cannot order tests.

The commotion around a helpline that didn’t work; a distrust of the HSE’s ability to supply reliable data; and a preoccupation with media coverage of the CervicalCheck crisis are themes in a series of revealing texts between the health minister and his most senior adviser (the texts have been obtained through Freedom of Information).