Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In any basic study of statistics, if something is being described as a false negative, it is an indication of a limitation in the test. If two or more false negatives are produced for one woman and it transpires that some of the slides are perverse in terms of either the rate of cells or the high-grade cells that were present or the woman had cancer at that time, would that not ring alarm bells immediately with the screening programme? What is the probability of this happening twice to the same woman?