Mr. John Connaghan:

There are three or four elements on the critical path for that roll-out. The first is the service specification, the second is the preparation of tender documentation and the third part is, after tender, mobilisation. Those are three things on the critical path. I am not able at this stage to tell Deputy O'Brien the time elements of each of those. There are some things in play which we are going to try to deploy to speed things up. Regarding tendering, there is a possibility that we can go for a negotiated contract which would truncate the tendering process. We are considering that right now.

We need to tidy up the service specification and the tender documentation needs high level clinical input, so we need to have a clinical director for the CervicalCheck part. We are working on that and we might have some news next week. If that is the case, once we get that clinical input, authority, accountability and responsibility, it will allow us swiftly to close off the position in the service specification and to tender. If we can go to a negotiated contract, then that might be the best way forward in getting HPV testing in place quickly. There is also an element here of the capacity of each of the labs. On what we want in respect of resilience, I have already given advice in response to a question raised by Deputy Catherine Connolly earlier. My view is that we should have at least three or four.