Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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An issue that was raised here last week and again this morning is the option to have an additional smear test. There seems to be constant reference to whether it was a good or bad idea. As somebody who sometimes works in the community and engages a lot with people in community health, I would point out to the committee that there was significant demand when there was an information vacuum. People with private health insurance were presenting in private clinics in the early days of this scandal offering to pay for a smear test to be done. Regardless of whether it was right or wrong, the logic of it was it was their free choice to do that. I know many women who paid. I supported the idea of that reassurance smear being offered. At the time, a class gap was forming. In an information vacuum and when we were all, and still are, up to our necks in this and it was very stressful for all of the witnesses, members of the committee and the public, a two-tier system had emerged where some women who could afford it were presenting in private clinics, while other women with the medical card or who did not have the means were feeling somehow disenfranchised. Hindsight is wonderful and we would all love to have it. Looking at this through the lens of all the information we have now is fine but as somebody who was engaging with groups of women and GPs, I can tell the committee that a massive discrepancy was arising between the types of people who were or were not getting a free smear test. Although in hindsight, it may have contributed to the backlog, if we had not done it at the time, it would have been a far more stressful situation for women and would have increased the amount of fear.