Ms Michele Tait:

No, I do not believe it is. The national screening guideline that the HSE published in 2017 sets out a process whereby anybody who works in any part of the health service and beyond - within the prison service, for example - works to a set of guidelines under which patients are identified on a risk basis and are tested for hepatitis C based on risk. The screening guideline sets out the criteria where patients who may be at risk or who may be identified as having previously been at risk are recommended to be tested for hepatitis C. So there is a national guidance in the form of our national screening guideline that we have produced and published since 2017.