Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 10 May 2018
Public Accounts Committee
State Claims, Management of Legal Costs and Policy on Open Disclosure
Implications of CervicalCheck Revelations
2016 Financial Statements of the State Claims Agency
2016 Financial Statements of the HSE
9:00 am
Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
Grand. That is fair. We will get the letter and we will go through it. I would like to ask a quick question about the issue referred to by Deputy Burke. As colleagues will know, I have discussed this matter with Mr. O'Brien at two committees - this committee and the health committee. I have gone through it in the finance committee with the State Claims Agency and there have been debates in the Dáil. I have classified as a "bombshell" the fact that there was a difference between the cancer registry figures and the CervicalCheck figures. The issue in relation to those two sets of figures - the fact that they relate to completely different catchments of women - has been detailed. As part of the review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, we will get details of what has transpired in respect of this other cohort of women. Over a number of years, CervicalCheck attempted to ensure these figures were consistent and correlated. Obviously, it failed. In what aspect did it fail? It is possible that the failure was not on its part. In what aspect did those figures fail to come together? I understand that similar issues do not exist across other screening programmes. Can Mr. O'Brien confirm that?