Dr. Gabriel Scally:

Then there is the more general issue of loss of confidence in the screening programme. Happily, screening numbers have not dropped off, but it is still only at around 80%. We should not be satisfied with 80%, because 20% of women are at risk. The system needs to get better at convincing women that this is a good service, that they should come to it and that they would be welcomed to it and looked after properly. There is a new opportunity now with the new, much more accurate test coming in. There will be a large amount of work on that and on the HPV vaccination. Those two things together are the way forward, but it will not happen without people putting the effort into regaining the sort of confidence the Deputy has spoken of; the public confidence and the confidence of the women who have been affected.