Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I wish to declare an interest. I worked in this area for 25 years as a medical scientist and I welcome colleagues, old and new, to the Visitors Gallery. They are being silenced, of course, by the Ceann Comhairle so they are mute today.

For 40 years, medical scientists have screened literally millions of cervical smears. Thousands of Irish women have had their lives saved because of this high quality service. The expertise was built up slowly over the years until it reached a level that is literally second to none in the world. We are now about to permanently wipe out that invaluable pool of expertise and sacrifice it on the altar of the Minister, Deputy Harney's privatisation agenda.

The comments of the Minister for Health and Children and the Tánaiste in the Dáil, and of Mr. Tony O'Brien of the National Cancer Screening Service, to the effect that Irish women have not had an accurate and quality cytology service in the past, is not only grossly insulting to the professional integrity of the medical scientists involved but also highly inaccurate and damaging, by any international standards.

Some 70 medical scientists in cytology laboratories now face an end to their careers. In addition, the country faces an end to sufficiency in cervical cancer screening and an absolute dependence on foreign private sector operators for a vital part of patient health. No other country in the world exports the health of its citizens in this way.

The quality of the outsourced work to the preferred bidder, Quest Diagnostics, has, on analysis, shown major discrepancies even on corrected figures. No amount of statistical fudging by the Minister or Tony O'Brien will improve Quest's low detection rate. If the screening programme is outsourced to Quest, the outcome for Irish women will be a decreased accuracy in the pick-up rate for high-grade smears, leading to an increase in cervical cancer and dire consequences for Irish women.

The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is the independent authority on all aspects of quality in the health service. Has it been asked to analyse the discrepancies in Quest's results and, if not, why not? Is HIQA happy with the outsourcing to Quest? Dr. Tracey Cooper, the CEO of HIQA, should be asked to report and comment on this matter. That is his job and it is what HIQA is there for.

The decision to outsource can only be explained by the political ideology of the Minister and the Government. This is another step in the privatisation of the health service towards a for-profit service, if one can afford it.

I served for 25 years as a medical technologist and, in addition, I served for ten years on the executive of the union representing that group. I want to issue a word of warning to the Minister. There are approximately 2,500 medical technologists and scientists in the country who are fully unionised and their unions have a mandate from their members for industrial action. If 70 of their members have their hard-won careers terminated by this crazy outsourcing and privatisation, it is highly unlikely that their union will stand idly by. They will have my full support in whatever action they take to protect the lives of women in Ireland, their careers and the knowledge base that we have built up here. I ask the Minister to consider this matter very seriously. It is seldom that such a debate is held in this House. The Government agreed to the Opposition's request for a debate because of the urgency and importance of the issue. Before a final decision is made on this matter, the Minister should seriously take on board the points that have been made in this debate by the Opposition, as well as the views of experts outside the House.

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