Mr. Damien McCallion:

The Deputy referred earlier to Dr. Scally's identification of a number of laboratories that were used without the prior knowledge of the programme. Clearly the visits would not have included those laboratories. As I understand it, Dr. Scally will report on that separately. The visits to the other laboratories every three to four years happened physically; there were boots on the ground. The laboratories were inspected against a quality assurance standard which is probably not dissimilar to what the Deputy has described. There is a set of metrics and other things which one goes through. Dr. Scally's report again identified that this assurance needed to be strengthened. One of his recommendations has been implemented through the appointment of a pathology QA lead. We have said that we will move to annual visits. We should do that on a regular basis, irrespective of whether a laboratory is in Ireland or in England, France or America. That will be one part of an overall quality assurance system, which will include monitoring of key metrics that give an indication of the quality of the work of the laboratories. There is a range of indicators specific to the programme in that regard.