A Fianna Fail TD has said she does not have confidence in under-fire HSE director Tony O’Brien but believes he should remain in place to answer questions over knowledge of the Cervical Check scandal.

Galway East TD Anne Rabbitte said Mr O’Brien should play his role in the scoping exercise into the “sordid” controversy which was exposed by cancer patient Vicky Phelan.

“I can’t say I seriously have confidence in Tony O’Brien but do I believe Tony O’Brien should go? No I don’t because what I want out of this is I want a scoping exercise and I want him to play his role in it for the next number of weeks,” Mr Rabbitte told Independent.ie Floating Voter podcast.

“There has to be accountability and he was the one who was responsible for the balances and checks and how the process was run,” she added.

Asked if she had confidence in Health Minister Simon Harris, Ms Rabbitte said she does not have “confidence in the process”.

She also said she believes the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution will not be passed.

Ms Rabbitt sat on the Oireachtas Committee that proposed unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

However, she did not vote in favour of the proposal.

She does support abortion in the case of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities.