Dr. Nóirín Russell:

To address the Deputy's question about reviews, the review only starts after the diagnosis of cancer is made. In 2018, all of the women were told that they had a diagnosis of cancer once that information was available. That process of review can take a long time. The Deputy is right that it is a long process. It does not change the prognosis or the treatment for the woman She will have questions. She will ask why, when she had a screening test that was normal, does she now have cancer. That review is very important but it does not change prognoses or further treatments. That is the first important point.

The Scally report looked specifically at the laboratories for the CervicalCheck programme and concluded that the laboratories were operating to the quality assurance standards in the countries of origin and that there was no reason to discontinue laboratory contracts with any one of those laboratories. That was the conclusion of the Scally report. To be absolutely crystal clear, we are happy that the laboratories we use for the CervicalCheck programme are quality assured.