Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister stated last October in a reply to Deputy Ó Caoláin: "Yes, ideally we must have our own laboratory facilities in Ireland." Does the Minister not agree these facilities already exist? We have the trained technicians which the public health service needs if it is to develop.

Will the Minister agree that sending the entire screening programme outside the country is moving in the opposite direction and that we will not in the future have the capacity or laboratory facilities required if this proposal proceeds? In doing this, the Minister is endangering women's lives especially given the diagnostic rate of pre-cancer cells at Quest is 30% less than that which pertains in Irish laboratories. How does this square with the Minister's quality assured service? This decision is putting women's lives at risk. It is not good enough for the Minister to lay the blame on the NCSS and to wash her hands of its decision. She is the Minister and is responsible and will be responsible if the death rate increases. We have an opportunity to increase the capacity of the laboratories in Ireland, to ensure that the screening programme is rolled out properly and to ensure that we have quality assurance in Ireland in laboratories which are responsible and accountable to the Irish health service, not to a company which has been found guilty of fraud continuously.

See this speech in context