Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I had a meeting with the colposcopy community yesterday, which was the first time I have met with them since I took up the post. I heard from my colleagues about their commitment to delivering a first-class service to the women of Ireland. However, they are under pressure from the increased number of referrals to the programme from primary care and elsewhere. I have seen from the data that colleagues have worked to increase the number of clinics available in most of the centres across Ireland, particularly those that generally have many patients referred for colposcopy. In some cases they have doubled the number of sessions or added at least one or two sessions a week. The data show that waiting times are not abnormally high at the moment. We need to look at how we are going to support this going forward. The additional capacity is being delivered in the context of goodwill and support for delivering this programme within hospitals. We need to continue to support our colleagues in delivering that service.