Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The truth is what I have just said, that I believe that he is best placed to provide answers, help the scoping enquiry and help the process that CervicalCheck needs to undergo over the next few weeks. On the issue of the labs, Deputy Coppinger has been asking a lot of questions, and I am not suggesting that they are not important. They are important questions. The Deputy also made a detailed submission to me about the terms of reference. I have tried to capture that in item f. of the terms of reference, whereby we have asked Dr. Scally and Dr. Denton, who know a lot about this as opposed to me as a non-clinician, to "examine the tendering, contracting, operation, conflict of interest arrangements, performance information and performance management, accreditation and quality assurance of contracted cytology laboratory services by CervicalCheck from initiation of the programme".

All of those issues, the operation of each of those labs and how it relates to the programme will be looked at to provide answers. I will ask Mr. Sullivan if there is anything I need to add in relation to the comment that the director general made about two pairs of eyes. In response to the Deputy's question and the woman she met who was looking for assurance that her case would be looked at again, we are asking the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to review all of the known cervical cancer cases in Ireland. Now, obviously, not all cases will have a screening history. We are seeing this with the National Cancer Registry. Nonetheless, we are asking them to look at all of them, which will be in and around 3,000 cases. So yes, it will be looked at again.