The HSE has denied reports that it failed to correspond with Gardai for three years, following a report into the handling of the Grace Case.

In a statement this afternoon it says it had ongoing contact with Gardai between 2012 and 2014 about inquiries into matters at the foster home in the south-east.

It's after reports yesterday that the HSE received the Devine Report into Grace's care in 2012, but did not pass it on until 2015.

The HSE had previously told the Public Accounts Committee that it could not publish the Devine report because it had not yet been cleared to do so by the Gardaí.

However a schedule of contact between the HSE and the Gardaí, sought by RTE under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed no contact about publishing the Devine Report until 2015 - three years after its completino.

In its statement today the HSE said: "Throughout the period, from 2011, further live Garda investigations linked to the former foster home and the Grace case continued throughout 2012, 2013, and 2014 which were the subject of ongoing contact, including correspondence and provision of additional information and files, to the Gardaí by HSE staff in the South East.

"HSE staff involved were working on the basis of the standard practice whereby reports are not published in advance of live Garda investigations being finalised. Following publication of the Dignam report, the HSE and An Garda Siochána have established a liaison group in order to streamline publication of reports in the future."

Earlier the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee claimed it will be harder to accept the HSE's testimony about matters in future, following the dispute.

Sean Fleming told Today FM there was a clear contradiction between what had been uncovered in RTE's Freedom of Information request, and what the Public Accounts Committee had been told in 2015.

Fleming says the HSE has been guilty of manipulating the media in previous cases, and used PAC as a forum to do so:

Separately the mother of the disabled woman known as 'Grace' says she was told her daughter was in a loving foster home.

The woman was consulted about Grace's care in 1999 - four years after concerns had emerged about her treatment - but not told about any risk of harm.

She's rejected the HSE's apology over the handling of her daughter's case.

The HSE said in response: "It is genuinely to our regret but we understand why Grace’s mother cannot accept our apology now. We do hope that in the future she may be in a position to do so.

"What is most important is that any questions she has which remain to be answered, that she will get those answers from the objective viewpoint of the upcoming Commission of Inquiry.

"Grace’s mother can be assured that the HSE will co-operate in every way to assist the Commission of Inquiry fulfil its Terms of Reference."

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News: