Professor Henry Kitchener:

The Chairman made reference to three things. The inherent limits of sensitivity that cytology screening has is the reason women are invited every three years. We know that - to use Dr. Henry's figure that one quarter of the abnormalities are not picked up in one screen - because the natural history of cancer of the cervix endures over a number of years, the hope is that they will be picked up in a subsequent screen. Repeated screening, and compliance with or adherence to repeated screening, is an important way of trying to raise the overall sensitivity of cervical screening. It is quite clear that HPV testing will reset the risk, because there will be an increased detection of underlying pre-cancerous lesions, and that will happen.

It is also the case that because women who are HPV negative are at such low risk, not just at that moment of time but in the short term, that screening intervals could increase. Regarding no-fault compensation, we do not have that in the UK and this is a matter for Irish policy-makers to consider.