Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe that is sufficient. I also have concerns about other issues which I will not yet speak about here. There is a direct contradiction in the evidence and documentation that Ms Claire Healy has given us. In fairness to Ms Healy, she sent us documentation from people in the HSE, which verifies what happened and others in the HSE have also noted the contradiction. The issue is between the letters from Dr. Lorraine Doherty and Mr. Liam Woods. What happened in between those two letters being sent out? How were they distributed across the various different areas in the HSE? How many people were subsequently affected? The second letter from Mr. Woods clarified the issue and totally changed what Dr. Doherty had said. Did the issue continue after the date of that letter?

I agree with Deputy Donnelly that the HSE should just admit that it made an error and got it wrong. However, I do not believe a letter from the HSE is going to sufficiently deal with that. We need to tease this out, perhaps in a limited period of an hour or so within this committee. We must do so because of the concerns raised. This is not any other screening programme; this is CervicalCheck and so we need to be absolutely clear that this should not have happened and is unacceptable. The HSE's attitude has been laissez-faireand given the screening programme in question, that needs to be looked into.