Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In terms of what Ms Walsh, Mr. Teap and the wider group have done, I am very sorry that they have given so much of themselves and that people ignored them, treated them like they were stupid, isolated them or did not value their input. Their input to this committee has been extremely valuable in uncovering and guiding us in trying to do work on their behalf. A huge learning arising from the lack of governance in this case can be applied in future in the HSE. Many of us were very shocked at the mess of the governance structure. Mr. Teap made a very important point that the patient representative groups should not be from a particular age group just because people are available, and that provision is made for it to be truly representative.

I am concerned by Mr. Teap's comments on the rates of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer rates in Ireland were rising higher than anywhere else before cervical cancer screening was introduced. When RCOG was before us for a private meeting - we will speak to its representatives tomorrow - I asked what the outcome would have been if we had not bothered screening or if we had taken smears and not read them. The gist of the response, which we will check publicly at tomorrow's meeting, was that Ireland had a 4% year-on-year increase in mortality and now we have 7% year-on-year decrease. I am not sure where RCOG is getting those figures from but I hope, on the witnesses' behalf, to interrogate them tomorrow. It is very important that screening is having a material impact and is not just an inconvenience.

I hope we will get the witnesses' questions answered tomorrow insofar as possible. Despite the difficulties, I encourage them to stay as part of this process. We need Mr. Teap and Ms Walsh to help us to do our job. We have not been where they are and I hope I never will be. To improve things for the future, we need the witnesses to stay involved, if possible. I know that will be very difficult but-----