Mr. Tony O'Brien:

In relation to high grade, the 2015-16 CervicalCheck annual report listed all the different categories of high-grade detection. Added together, they come to 1.66%. That is perfectly within what one would expect. I wish to correct any belief the Deputy might have that the decision to outsource was cost driven. It was not. While every competitive tendering process must take account of cost in order not to be a hostage to overpricing, 80% of the criteria in the tendering process were quality orientated. The volume requirement of 25,000 was because, as in many things, there can be a correlation between volume and quality. We did not want to have very small providers doing things such as were happening in Ireland at the time. The Deputy used the interesting phrase "reading the slides close to the hospital". In some cases, that meant on the kitchen table at home. Ten years ago, Deputy Coppinger's constituents might have waited up to a year for their results. The ten-day turnaround is because that is what is required to be able to offer a credible cervical screening programme - or any screening programme. We can not say come have a test and wait forever for the result.