Mr. Damien McCallion:

Yes and in terms of where we are at in that regard, the steering group for cervical screening met this morning. That group is based in the Department, is chaired by the CMO and has patient representation as well as representatives of the colleges and the HSE. It met this morning to go through the implementation plan.

On receipt of the report, we identified leads in each of the services in the HSE and in the Department. We have someone assigned in the HSE whose sole job is to focus on ensuring that the Scally recommendations are advanced. We have been working on what each of the recommendations means and have had sessions with Dr. Scally himself to tease through some of the specifics. The implementation plan was reviewed this morning and the intention is to provide it to Dr. Scally for review, with a view to him determining whether it is adequate or requires further strengthening.

We have not been waiting around, however. As I mentioned, there were certain things that were self-evident during Dr. Scally's investigation such as the need for a cytopathology lead and we advertised that post while he was still mid-stream. There are other areas that he has identified that require strengthening and I met him yesterday to discuss these further. We have a full-time person in place and a steering group is in place in the HSE, chaired by the deputy director of operations. There is also the overall Department group in place which has patient representatives. A range of actions have been scoped, some of which have already started and some of which are more long term.