Mr. Damien McCallion:

I will answer the Deputy's first question and I will ask my colleague, Dr. McKenna, to speak on the clinical risk element. Regarding the backlog, while there is some variation between laboratories in terms of what is there, we have prioritised colposcopy, which is the highest risk group, across the laboratories, and clear instructions and guidance were given on that. In addition, where one of the laboratories had pressure, we authorised what is called co-testing, where we ran the HPV test first, which allowed us to triage and ensure we were taking out the smears that have the highest risk. They are mitigation steps we have taken to try to reduce that risk.

The other group is women who are on short recalls. Deputy Kelly asked this question previously. We are working through trying to find the technology solution that might help to accelerate those. We do not have that at the moment but we believe we will be able to do something around that. We have tried to mitigate the at-risk groups as best we can within the context of how the programme functions to minimise that risk Deputy Donnelly has described in terms of what is there. Those steps are in place and functioning.

I will ask my colleague, Dr. McKenna, to respond to the other point the Deputy made regarding the development of cervical cancer.