Mr. Tony O'Brien:

It is absolutely inevitable that there will be women who will get a "no abnormality detected" smear test result and subsequently develop cervical cancer and in respect of whom, on the basis of a review of their slides, once it is known that they have had cervical cancer, a reviewer will suggest a different result ought to have been given. That is because this form of testing is internationally understood to be 70% accurate. It is a screening test and not a diagnostic test. It was always inevitable that the screening programme, as with all population screening programmes, would not provide a pathway to diagnosis for every woman who might have been able to benefit from it. At the outset, based on all the public health information available, and in any country that has decided to have a screening programme for any population-based cancer, the decision is made to have the screening programme based on the benefit it can deliver as opposed to the benefits it will not deliver. That benefit, as I characterised earlier, is a 7% reduction in the incidence of cervical cancer. The detection of high-grade cervical cell abnormalities among 50,000 patients, enabling them to have treatment, means they will not go on to develop cervical cancer. There have been 1,200 women diagnosed with cervical cancer through the programme, the result being that they could start their treatment pathway earlier than otherwise.

The issue to which the Deputy is referring is the relationship or suggestion that the decision to provide the cervical cytology testing through laboratories outside Ireland is in some way connected with this. There was always going to be a certain number of cases like this, unfortunately. There was always going to be a need to review, and there was always going to be a need to communicate, but the performance of the laboratories is in line with international expectations and has not contributed to a situation where there are more such events than would be likely to occur in any event.