Mr. Ciarán Breen:

In practice what happens is that a letter of claim will come in on behalf of the injured woman and that letter will be sent to cervical screening. Cervical screening immediately issues a letter to the relevant laboratory, whether it is one of other of the laboratories, stating: "This letter has arrived and under the contract that you have with us, you are obliged, in the event that this is a misread smear, to provide an indemnity". In some of the cases, the US laboratory has immediately indemnified the HSE on the basis that it is the laboratory's mistake. If that happens and the laboratory takes over the indemnity, then the matter is live only between the injured woman and the laboratory and the lawyers on both sides. The HSE is not involved. If the laboratory, for whatever reason, does not give an indemnity, we will be a co-defendant in the case and we will be looking at why it is that the relevant indemnity has not been given to the State, or whether it should be given to the State or what other issues there are in the case.