Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending the committee and for the work they did on this report. Over the summer I was conscious that people were saying it was a very good report. It is a very well-written report. Any of us who were involved in the discussions at the Committee on Health and the Committee of Public Accounts wonder how the witnesses got so much information out of them when we here failed to extract the information. The report, however, is very damning reading. While it is well put together, the content is not good.

The first part of the report focuses on the move from the current screening to the HPV screening and the benefits of HPV screening. That is great and we are all for that. I want to focus, however, on the problems I have come across. Upon reading the report I am concerned about some issues and perhaps the witnesses could shine some light on these and on the matters that have come up today.

With regard to quality assurance, QA, am I correct in saying that the members of the quality team in the HSE were not the people who went over to audit the labs and did not know that another secret team was going over? Am I correct that there was a meeting when that team returned from the United States of America where everyone said they did a great job and then they moved on? Is that what happened or did I misinterpret the report? This is referred to on page 30 of the report.