Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

No. 1528, which is correspondence received on 17 August 2018, was held over. It concerns the national director of the HSE. I raise this matter because somebody contacted me and because it is something we have all raised about the original slides in the cervical screening programme not being released to the women. We were given assurances. The contract for the two laboratories states that the ownership of the slides resides with the HSE and they can be returned within three days. I have a note of that. According to an article in The Irish Mirrortoday, a solicitor dealing with one or some of the cases is harshly critical of the delay in releasing these slides. I raise this issue because we previously raised it here and received assurances that there would be no delay. This correspondence seems to talk about a process to ensure the integrity of the slides and minimise risk and I agree we want that to happen. We do not want any damage because the slides' integrity must be preserved. However, if this is being used as a reason to delay releasing slides and is causing additional stress, and I am told it is, it is unacceptable.