Dr. Nóirín Russell:

I thank the Deputy for his comments about screening versus diagnosis. He has always been supportive of the programme and of making that distinction. The programme screened more than 117,000 women in primary care this year to the end of November. We had an incredibly busy November where we screened 24,000 women when we were expecting 21,000. I thank all of the women who made it their business to make their appointments and the GPs and practice nurses who performed those tests. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, the number is less than what was predicted before we knew about Covid, but more than 117,000 women up to the end of-----