Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I am shocked.

Can the witnesses explain the difference between urgent and non-urgent cases? I am looking through the minutes and I see that some referrals are urgent and some are non-urgent. The reason I ask is that I have been contacted by several people who tell me that they experienced symptoms following a smear test that did not show up anything. I will not get into a discussion about percentages. By virtue of the fact that they had recently had a smear test with a clear result, these women tell me that they are being categorised as non-urgent. In some instances the fear, or indeed the fact, is that they have developed cancer in the intervening time.