Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the risk of being accused of catching whatever Deputy Durkan has, I will try to keep it as brief as possible. We have the benefit of hindsight. We have heard many history lessons and assumptions this morning.

I am keen to make it clear because I have been straight on this since the start, when the offer of an additional smear was given. Mr. McCallion will correct me if I am wrong because I imagine he will know the answer. I do not follow Twitter in the sense that it is not where I get my official press releases. Anyway, the chief medical officer made a press statement stating any woman who had had a cervical smear test should have a further test as part of a reassurance measure provided the GP took the view that she required it. Moreover, the Minister asked CervicalCheck to make arrangements, including payment provision.

The first point in respect of the correspondence we got last night is that I want to make it clear that GPs got paid for this. Second, there were two strands to the payment. There was a consultation payment and a further payment if the procedure took place. Previous commentary referred to a free token for a smear but the Minister was offering a free smear.

The Minister is not a medic but he acts on medical advice. I speak as someone who has worked as a clinical pharmacist and who has worked in community pharmacy for 15 years. We have two well-qualified doctors before us today. If it was as simple as making clinical decisions based on data, we would not need any doctors or pharmacists. We could simply throw data into a computer and allow it to throw data out the other end. Doctors need the autonomy to make decisions that they need to make with regard to men and women in the comfort of their practice and in the context of their relationship with their patients. The very fact that the payment was divided into two strands, consultation plus procedure, points out that the power was in the hands of the GPs.

The next point is based on anecdotal evidence and not some major study. I live and work in Dublin. I have busy city centre pharmacies. People were presenting terrified. Let us look back at the history. I hope I do not attribute the wrong questions to the Chairman, but I remember questions were raised about custody and even the question of who owned the smears. We did not know that in the early years. When Professor Flannelly went on "Morning Ireland", she could not tell how many women were affected. I am not taking from her role and I know she did extraordinary work and started off all of this, but she did not know how many women were affected. There is a letter from July 2016 in which Professor Flannelly specifically pointed to non-disclosure to the families of deceased people. On the one hand we have a document released overnight and some people are taking it as gospel, while on the other hand we have historical references to a person whose contribution on "Morning Ireland" contributed considerably to the stress around this.