Mr. Damien McCallion:

We do not know that it did in the sense of how it all operated. We have been through this issue a number of times. We are not in a position where we can add anything. We can explain the context in terms of the difficult circumstances faced at the time by GPs and women. To illustrate them, our cervical helpline would typically have handled a couple of hundred calls in a week. It jumped to thousands at the time, which created its own challenges, as the Deputy may recall, in responding to women. There was also considerable public pressure exerted.