Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

In the report, Dr. Scally also examines the nature of the testing, how many tests were carried out and the compliance of the labs with quality and regulatory standards. This is of current relevance because Sonic Healthcare is the mother company of MedLab Pathology, which is proposing the outsourcing of testing of Irish samples to Australia. In terms of quality assurance and the visits that were made, it is true that Dr. Scally states that the labs met the standards for the country or region in which they were located but they were not up to international standard. The local standards varied depending on location. CPL was asked about its standards in 2011, but Dr. Scally states that there is no record of what happened when errors were identified in regard to the under-reporting of low-level cervical cancers, which is very dangerous because those cancers might develop further. Consistent error by a pathologist responsible for training others was identified but nothing was done. No consideration was given to the wider impact of that on the training of other staff.

Another issue is the fiddling of figures by Quest in 2014. Some 1,224 false negatives were identified. I will have to rush through these figures as I am running out of time. Quest claimed an error rate of 3.19% but the Scally report identified the rate as 17.6%. This may be explained by labs in different countries with differing testing and definitions of abnormality being used.

Cost is another major issue. Why did costs become an increasingly relevant consideration in contracts being awarded? In 2008, it made up 20% of the criteria but by 2010 it was 35% and by 2012 it was 40%. The country was in a bailout programme, things had to be cut and cost became far more important. Does the Minister claim that that would not impact on the testing of women's samples? In 2016, there were mini-competitions in which cost accounted for 80% of the criteria. This is doing medicine on the cheap.

Quest Diagnostics has generated profits of €7.7 billion and Sonic Healthcare had net revenue of €3.5 billion. The testing should be carried out in the public health system in this country. It is not fair or right to say that there is no issue arising from the report.

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