Dr. Colm Henry:

As with any other service we are resuming that was paused on 27 March, as part of the wider package of pausing non-essential services, there are two assumptions that are important for all of us to consider. This is a valued and valuable service to us and to women in Ireland. I acknowledge the work of the 221 group and other advocacy groups in ensuring that we focus on restoring our services. There are two main assumptions: that the community transmission level remains low; and that there is a continued easing of social restrictions. If we see a scenario play out as we have seen in other countries and some US states where there is sudden rapid community transmission, clearly it would give us reason to pause resumption of services, be they screening or otherwise. To answer the Deputy's question directly, our hope is that notwithstanding those assumptions by October we will have caught up with all those who would have had cancelled appointments through this whole pandemic since 27 March.

One of the positive aspects of cervical screening is that we are now moving to HPV screening, a more sensitive form of screening and one which-----