Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion

Mr. Damien McCallion:

There is a project scheduled. Ms O'Connor has mentioned that there are a couple of challenges in that regard, one of which is that we must eliminate the backlog as one must have a stable operating environment to bring forward a new test. The second challenge is that we will need to tender. We have started the tender process to find a partner to work with us. We had what is called pre-tender market engagement before Christmas. Our environment is somewhat challenging in securing a partner to work with us. As there is a real risk, we have selected a procurement method that will allow us to negotiate and give us more flexibility in trying to ensure we will secure a partner. We do not want to go the market, issue a tender and discover at the end that we do not have a partner which would then set the process back even further. The next stage is that we will place an advertisement in the next two weeks to seek that partner. That will allow us to get into what is called the competitive dialogue process. There are reasons we are reluctant to set a date. Until we hear what that partner says it can do and provide within a timeframe, we cannot set an absolute date.

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