Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My very clear understanding from GPs and my officials was that women were making the decision to seek reassurance. They were going to go to their GPs for that reassurance but their GP would have not been able to provide clarity on what might happen. A two-tier system was emerging in which women who could afford it could have it. There was a risk of further undermining confidence in the programme by telling women we were not sure what was happening and were waiting for a report to come out first while not being able, in the meantime, to give them a repeat smear. The helpline was beginning to receive lots of phone calls from worried women seeking reassurance and not doing it would have added to the chaos of the time. I am sure that Members of the Dáil would have demanded that I do it and some have been honest enough to have admitted that. General practitioners showed significant leadership during this situation but they would have found it even more confusing and more difficult to get guidance and clarity, though Dr. Peter McKenna stepped up to the plate by providing clinical guidance to GPs at the time. I think many people would have sought free repeat smears anyway and that would have caused a capacity issue but the smears would not have been done in a way that was uniform. It would not have been fair either as it would have been a two-tier system.

I introduced a fee to pay the GP to see a woman and it was up to the GP and the woman, together in consultation, to decide whether a repeat smear was required. That worked to a certain extent and a significant number, some 50%, of those consultations did not result in a repeat smear. There was enough reassurance for those women from the conversations they had with their doctors to enable them to decide they did not need another smear.