Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The committee agrees to write back to ask for them. The final paragraph in the appendix to which the Deputy has referred states women who availed of an early repeat smear test with CervicalCheck will be called for their next routine appointment according to their individual screening recommendation. This means that most of the women who have been screened will be recalled for screening in either three or five years and that the future cost of providing smear tests will be offset to a degree by this out-of-cycle smear testing. I think that at the time people thought in good faith that there would be extra screening, but it is now being said that if a woman avails of extra screening, the next test will be three or five years later. Essentially, therefore, they are only bringing forward the tests women were due to have. No extra screening is being offered. Essentially, upcoming planned tests are being brought forward such that they are being done now, rather than when the women concerned were due to have them, for example, next year. I was not fully aware of that until I read that paragraph.