Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I wish to sympathise with the bereaved families. The loss of a wife and mother is very difficult for a family, even more so when the events which caused the death could have been avoided, as appears to be the case here. I welcome the inquiry. In my question I asked the Minister to include in its remit the issue of misreading of smear tests. However, she failed to answer that part of the question. I made this request because I have not yet received replies to a letter I wrote several weeks ago to both the Minister and Professor Drumm in which I provided documentary evidence showing there had been a misreading of several smear tests and that two false negatives had been issued from a laboratory in Galway, as was proven to be the case when archival samples were retested.

The woman involved in the case in question is now very seriously ill. I did not want to raise the case publicly because the woman and her family want to maintain their anonymity. However, I have forced into a position in which I must raise the issue because I am unable to obtain a reply from the Minister or Professor Drumm. Although the former acknowledged the correspondence, I expected I would have received a substantive reply by now given that I wrote to her almost three weeks ago. When I wrote to Professor Drumm I received the usual, ludicrous answer with which Deputies are familiar, namely, that the matter was being referred to the parliamentary affairs section of the Health Service Executive. For the HSE to refer to its parliamentary affairs section a letter about a person who is seriously ill with cancer following the misreading of a smear test as if it were a routine inquiry by a Deputy makes one wonder what is going on in that organisation. While I presume the matter has been brought to the Minister's attention, failing that I ask her to seek out the information.

A woman whom I know quite well is extremely ill with cancer. The circumstances of the case are that a general practitioner took a smear test for cervical cancer in 2006. The test was sent to Galway and the result was negative. However, when inquiries took place earlier in the summer, it was found that a smear test had also been sent for analysis in 2001. When the 2006 archival sample was retested, it showed clearly that the indicators of cancer were present in the sample. The 2001 sample, taken five years previously, also showed that pre-cancerous cells were present. At a minimum, precautions should have been taken at that stage and the woman in question made the subject of observation.

Did the Minister's officials show her my correspondence? I did not make an allegation or send a routine letter but provided her with the results of the archival laboratory tests to show that the family who raised the matter with me are speaking the absolute and simple truth and are supported by their clinicians. Did the Minister have a conversation with Professor Drumm? It seemed from something he said this morning that he may have been made aware of the case last night because he referred to a third case. I am not certain he was referring to the woman in question.

I am constrained by the fact that the family in question do not want publicity about the case and while I will not name names today, I regard this as an extremely serious issue which has been very badly handled. There may be reasons for this. Perhaps matters are being inquired into in the Department or a substantive reply is on its way to me. However, in view of the gravity of the case and the serious condition in which the woman in question finds herself, I would have expected to have been contacted by the Department and Professor Drumm.

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