Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not credible that not one dissenting voice made its way to the Minister's ear before 1 May. That is my view. What I find completely incredible is that the Minister did not review that decision until October. May, June, July, August and September make five months. On the last occasion the Minister was before this committee, he said he was engaging with CervicalCheck almost on a fortnightly basis. He said himself that he would have been aware of the backlog when it arose. That backlog was quite evident from at least August onwards. The Minister decided to do nothing. I know he is going to refer to the Scally report. I do not really care about the Scally report right now. The report does not stop the Minister from doing his job. He is not bound by the Scally report, nor can he hide behind it. If that backlog was evident to the Minister at least in August - we will give him that much - how did he leave it until October to make the call to end the free out-of-cycle smears? He only made that call because CervicalCheck wrote to him on 21 October to ask him to stop because he was crashing the system.

Even when he made the decision, it was not implemented until December. Not only did he make a bad decision initially for the wrong reasons, because he was under political pressure, he made it without the proper advice. He did not consult the actual organisation that was going to carry out his promise. I cannot understand that. Even if the Minister had no confidence in them, the free smears he was giving out were being sent to CervicalCheck anyway. That makes no sense. If the Minister is saying he did not have confidence and did not want to consult them but he had no problem directing another 100,000 women to their doors, it does not add up. He went a full five months without reviewing the decision, knowing the backlog was building; I do not know how the Minister can stand behind such inaction. That inaction allowed the backlog to build and build, and the Minister still has not sorted out capacity. Can the Minister outline to me how he can justify waiting until October to make that decision, whatever about not implementing it until December because people had booked in? The Minister could have dealt with those who were already booked rather than taking new bookings so I do not buy that either, frankly. Why did the Minister wait so long? If he answers with "Scally report" as he did on the last occasion, I ask him to keep it brief.