Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were a mixture to some extent. This was a reassurance mechanism but, as Minister for Health, I cannot put myself in that consultation room. I trusted women and their doctors, together, to make what they believed to be the appropriate decision. I did not want a situation where some women could access a repeat smear and others could not or where a doctor believed it was appropriate but had no access to one. This was far from ideal, of course, and I would not want anybody to misunderstand the position of me or my Department in this regard. This is something we would never wish to do. It is meant to be a population health programme that is done on a scheduled basis every number of years or in accordance with risk. This was different, however. People have said we could have undermined confidence in the screening programme but that had happened with the failure to disclose. Chatting about it a year after the debacle does not capture the situation we were in at the time.