Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he knows I have recently arrived in the CervicalCheck service. I was not involved in the decision-making on this at the time. Nevertheless, at the time we were dealing with a very difficult situation concerning confidence in the programme and anxiety among the population of women in Ireland, who were concerned about the result of their cervical smear and what that might mean for them. When one is working in a crisis situation one often has to take decisions that one would not take in the cold light of day-----