Mr. Jim Breslin:

I will let the HSE talk to the risk register and what has been developed. The only thing I would say about that point is that in my view the issue around disclosure in CervicalCheck and the introduction of an audit, the purpose of which, at a point, would have yielded information and then a decision as to whether that should be disclosed - ultimately a decision to disclose it and then not to actually do so - was a risk before ever a claim would be lodged. If one was doing proper risk management across a screening programme, that is an area where one would identify a risk and put it on one's risk register. Whatever about at the top level of the HSE, within the screening service it should have been on the risk register before ever a court case was taken and we ended up where we were. It is a big ask for the health service to have the foresight to actually see risks before it sees claims but that is the ask. It is to look through the business it is involved in and ask where the vulnerabilities and weaknesses are and what could go wrong, and to proactively manage those so that it does not have claims. I hear the point the Chairman is making. When the claim then comes in, one gets a warning sign very quickly and if it is not on one's risk register, one gets it on to one's risk register. Properly managing risk within a healthcare environment requires one to identify risk much earlier than when a claim is lodged.