Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue here is a fairly serious one inasmuch as it raises further questions. I have spoke to Ms Claire Healy as well. She should not have been obliged to talk to politicians. It should have been dealt with.

We need to get Dr. Lorraine Doherty back in because there are questions to be asked. For example, one of the excuses offered as to why there may have been an issue with tracking the results is that if one goes from the private system to the public system, somehow one's identification, ID, changes. Clearly, it does not because the CervicalCheck ID was used by the GP and used by all of the tests at that time. That is not an excuse for what happened.

We need to get the bottom of how somebody can come in and intimate to this committee that she did not know how the decision happened when clearly she was central to it, and how many women are involved in this. I am aware, from within my own social circle, of at least one. I would imagine, if we scratch the surface, there are many women who would have been impacted like this on the basis that the waits were so long and any woman who was worried would either do it herself or, as in the case of my friend, be pressured into doing it by her husband on the basis of the need to get it done. The CervicalCheck programme should know how many women are involved in this. We need to get to the bottom of it.

It is essential that women have their smear tests but it is also essential that they have confidence in the system for handling those. We would be doing Claire and all of the other women impacted by this a grave disservice if we did not follow up on it. I believe we have a duty to so do.