Mr. Damien McCallion:

I am happy to supply a note that summarises the tendering process since the screening programme started. There was an original tender in 2008, which was awarded to two providers. In 2009 there was another tendering process, and a framework agreement was set up in 2012. I can provide that by copy to the committee. There were a number of other mini-competitions within that framework. The framework agreement provided for a number of laboratories, and the mini-competition was effectively a mini-competition within that for the supply of laboratories. For some number of years now, Quest Diagnostics and MedLab Pathology have been the two laboratories involved, with 10% of the testing undertaken by the Coombe hospital.

In terms of quality assurance - and the Deputy will appreciate that I have only looked at this in the last number of days - there is a quality assurance process around the laboratories which covers a range of areas, including the facilities, the staff qualifications, the specimens regime and data entry, among other things. I will not list everything out, but we can supply that information to the committee. It involves regular meetings with the laboratories. There is also a quality assurance group within the programme that looks at that area, including international expertise to support it from outside the Republic of Ireland. That is a brief summary of the process that is in place around the laboratories.