Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses will be delighted to learn I will probably only have time to ask three questions in this round. As of 9 o'clock this morning, how many women have been identified as having been affected? That figure was at 209.

It has been reported that the independent review of the cases of 3,000 women will not be completed on schedule and is only commencing now. What is the reason for that? Why has it taken so long? If there were 300,000 slides per year and it takes five minutes to review each, a team of ten people could carry out the analysis in a few weeks even if each slide is surveyed twice and the women's slide history examined. Why was there a commitment to complete the review within a timeframe which has not been followed? Why was information on the delay not made public? Why is the review only starting now? It will not be possible for it to form part of the Scally review, which must be completed by the end of August. The Minister for Health, stated that the final Scally review must be completed by the end of August. However, these 3,000 slides will not be part of it because of the delay. Stephen Teap and Vicky Phelan, who gave evidence to the committee, are extremely disappointed and upset this morning that the review of the slides will not form part of the Scally review. Why was the review committed to on the basis of an unrealistic timeframe? When will it be completed? How in the name of God can we have a situation where Dr. Scally must report by the end of August to ensure credibility but this review will not form part of his report because of the delay? How will his review be complete without that information? How in the name of God did we end up in this situation? Who committed to those unrealistic timelines?

I have a third question which I had better ask before the Chair cuts me off. It relates to the legal cases, of which I understand there is a significant number. I remind the witnesses that the State Claims Agency, SCA, will appear before the committee next week. As I understand it, the HSE hired a legal firm, the identity of which I know, to draft a protocol for how cytology slides are given to the women affected. That protocol has been in use for several weeks. Solicitors for several affected women have gone to court to seek the release of the slides and in such cases the HSE has handed them over without the protocol being followed. These are urgent cases. All present know what that means: the women are in difficult health situations. Why is a protocol needed for the release of slides to which the women are entitled? Why is it taking so long? Why can the protocol be bypassed when a woman goes to court and takes on CervicalCheck and it or the SCA is so embarrassed that it hands over the slides? Some 80 to 90 women have sought their files from CervicalCheck and some have received access thereto.

When it comes to getting their slides they are being blocked by a protocol, which I doubt anyone has heard of up to now. Given what the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Harris, said in the Dáil and the evidence given to this committee and the Joint Committee on Health, of which I am also a member, why is this protocol necessary? What is its purpose? If it can be bypassed in urgent cases why can it not be bypassed in this instance and these slides given to the women and their solicitors immediately? As I understand it, Quest Diagnostics is releasing the slides but Clinical Pathology Laboratories, CPL and MedLab Pathology Limited are in discussions in that regard in light of this protocol. According to the laboratories, the HSE, through the SCA, and this legal protocol, is holding up the provision of information to which these women are entitled.