Ms Tracey Conroy:

There was a reference to the Department not having been in contact with this patient until it became an issue in the media. In fact, she made contact with the Department in April regarding the delay in respect of her smear test results. That was not an unusual letter for the Department to receive at the time, given the context of the long turnaround times for smear tests. We responded at that time to explain the general delay in turnaround times. There was a series of communications, and I will ask Ms O'Callaghan to outline the situation very briefly.