Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I acknowledge the challenges they have experienced over the 20 months of the pandemic and the cyberattack on top of that, which did not help anybody at all.

I read this morning that approximately 300,000 cancer screenings were delayed last year as a result of the impact of Covid-19, as testing programmes were suspended in March 2020. As has been said, BreastCheck was suspended from March until October 2020 due to the initial lockdown. As witnesses have mentioned, BreastCheck invites mainly well people for screening but it is an effective process and picks up approximately one third of all breast cancer diagnosis in Ireland.

Will the witnesses outline some of the measures put in place to deal with these delays? Are cancer screenings back to full capacity? Are treatments for breast cancer now back to full capacity as well?