Ms Lorraine Walsh:

I would like to come back to the doctors and where we have all been at over the past year and a half. This debacle has pushed us all into a position of defence. When one is pushed into a position of defence, one will come out fighting. That is what happens. I realise that the patients and the clinicians all want the same thing. As a woman who has survived cervical cancer, I am left with the scars and the life-changing conditions. The same thing applies to every other woman in this country who has had cervical cancer, regardless of whether she is in the 221+ group or whether she has been part of the RCOG review. They are all suffering in some way and they have all been left with scars. The clinicians here do not have adequate support to support these women in living with the after-effects of cervical cancer. We spoke earlier about the supports that are in place for the 221+ group. I accept that some supports are in place. More importantly, the system must support these women. Earlier, I provided a list of ways in which these women can have a better quality of life. That goes across the board. We need to focus on that. That is why I want to stop looking backwards. We have got all the answers we are going to get here.

The RCOG review was not ideal, as I have said, but we have got many answers from Dr. Scally's work, the implementation of which is really important. All of that involves looking back, but we need to start looking forward now. This is the time to start working together to ensure the clinicians can give support to these women when they come in. If a woman complains of a swelling in her foot, her clinician should be able to refer her to somewhere appropriate where she can get early intervention. Similarly, a woman like me might come in at 34 years of age to say that she really wants to have a family and to ask if there is any way this can be done. Maybe I could have had my eggs frozen. I believe the Government is currently providing €300,000 towards oncofertility to a private clinic. It used to be a public clinic, but it is now a private clinic. That money should not be going to a private clinic. It should be in the public system so that a person who is in the public system can be referred directly into it. Some provision should be made for the future fertility of a man or a woman who is about to go through treatment, for example by preserving his sperm or her eggs. No direct path exists in this regard at the moment. That needs to be re-examined. It is about supporting these women so that they have a better quality of life. That is what the doctors want. As survivors, that is what we want too. That is what we have to achieve.