Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It sounds lovely when Mr. McCallion says they are looking to extend it but are they doing anything practically? That aspiration is all very well but I did not support outsourcing at the time and nor do I now. I refer to much of what has happened, such as how tests have been carried out in other jurisdictions. There has been talk of mad stuff like retrospective accreditation and so on. I speak as someone who uses the service. I am not happy that smear tests are bouncing all over the world. My instinct is that the best defence is to have the smear tests read here in this jurisdiction. It is one thing to say we all would like this to be happening and that it is being looked into and discussed but it does not seem as though much is being done. I respect that it is an aspiration but to make it a reality, it will require personnel, trained people and those who are in training now to come to work in the laboratory. I do not think that is being prioritised in any way.