Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has all been said. I want to add that for a long time I sat on a health forum in the west and we objected to the privatisation of services and the running down of State laboratories. We pointed out the problems and that there was a lack of control, yet the outsourcing of testing went ahead. Obviously we can make mistakes in our own country but what we were concerned about is that the decision was made blindly, it was not analysed properly and the protections were not in place. From what I can see as an elected Member, we highlighted that many years ago. Nevertheless those responsible went ahead and outsourced the testing of cervical samples and also breast cancer samples. I do not know what else was outsourced. That is part of the problem.