Dr. Peter McKenna:

In response to the last question, I note that one of the drugs commonly used, Cytotec, is very freely available here for another purpose. It is used routinely, or very frequently, in an obstetrics situation off-licence. I cannot imagine that not getting a licence would be an impediment to these drugs being used.

The other issue members raised, namely, Panorama and Harmony non-invasive pregnancy tests, is something of which we are very much aware. We were not asked whether we should go down the route of scanning or this route. Rather, it was mandated that 20-week scanning to look for anomalies was to be introduced, so that is the priority. However, in parallel to that, in time, these tests will be normalised, and should be available to everybody. When they were introduced three or four years ago they were very expensive. Each test cost about €900. That cost tumbled, and now it is about a third of that. I would expect that the more it is ordered the cheaper it becomes. I would envisage a situation, hopefully in the not too distant future, where this would be broadly available throughout the country. I totally agree that it is the way forward, and it is standard of care in some other countries.