Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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With regard to the laboratories in the US which are used for analysis, is there a programme whereby people from the HSE visit these laboratories? I will tell the witnesses why I am asking this. There was a concern that tests that were outsourced were then being outsourced again and, possibly, outsourced a third time. I ask my questions as somebody who uses the service and as somebody who wants women to have confidence in it. It is important. The service saves lives and I back it 100%, but women deserve to have confidence in it. Is it correct that somebody representing the bodies who contracted for this service, either the HSE or the Department of Health, has set foot inside those laboratories? Have they all been visited, only some, or none? Is it not necessary? Is it done by another group? How is it done? I worked in an industry that is big on quality assurance and our place of work was visited by an army of people with clipboards and forms to be filled out. The people who were contracting out to these companies wanted to be sure that the money they were spending was being spent in the best way possible. Do people physically set foot in the laboratories? If so, do the same people carry out the visits or is it different people? What is the system in the case of laboratories who contract out again to provide the services?