Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the past couple of weeks, we have seen a number of high-profile resignations with Dr. Tony Holohan, Dr. Ronan Glynn, and, in the last couple of days, the chief operating officer, COO, of the HSE signalling their intentions to leave their posts in the coming weeks. We all know the pandemic was an incredibly stressful time for all involved in public health. I would not fault anyone for wanting to step away now that we appear to be coming through the worst of it. However, my fear is that it represents a huge loss in institutional memory in the health service. Is the Government concerned about this? What is the timeframe for filling these posts once they become vacant? Does the Government intend to look outside the public service to fill the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, post specifically?

The other issue is that back in 2019, there was commitment from the Taoiseach of the day to bring cervical testing back to Ireland and halt the sending of smear tests abroad for testing. We all know the reasons why. It is now 2022. All the cervical samples from Irish women are being sent abroad for screening. Does the Taoiseach intend to honour his predecessor's commitment? Does the Government intend to ramp up our testing capacity? Traditionally, we were only able to do approximately 10% of smear tests taken annually. When does the Taoiseach expect the samples to be tested again in Ireland? What target percentage of tests does the Government hope to test domestically into the future and by when? Again, I understand if the Taoiseach does not have those answers; he might come back to me.

I want to get back to some of the previous questions regarding resources. With regard to the national children's hospital, the committee has now, to an extent, been bounced into the issue of trying to bring in people. I welcome the fact that we are getting the opportunity now to open up the issue to the public. We appealed to the Minister yesterday, however, that we just do not have the time to bring in as many people as we have. I know there is a potential decision on this next Tuesday-----