Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

As for smears, a total of 35,000 smears were outsourced for reasons of speed. It was taking far too long to obtain the results and there is no point in having smears without obtaining the results quickly because that defeats the purpose. The outsourcing was to an accredited laboratory. Clearly, the Health Service Executive is doing some work on the required number of hot and cold laboratories. However, quality is the key issue, as well as ensuring that all laboratories are accredited and operate to a high standard, which is essential.

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