Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I heard the interview this morning, which raised some questions and did not provide full clarity in terms of the Health Service Executive's response. The clinical director of CervicalCheck has spoken on radio in the past hour and provided much more clarity on the issues. I thank both individuals for their efforts to bring clarity. I am sure the Minister will be happy to deal with questions as they arise. He has already met the directors of the HSE and National Cancer Control Programme to discuss these issues and try to ensure we maintain confidence in a system that is vital to Irish women in terms of reducing the incidence of cervical cancer.

In terms of lessons learned, I assure Deputy Calleary that this matter is being taken extremely seriously by everybody concerned. For this reason, quick decisions have been taken today, not only to review but also to change the approach in terms of automatic entitlement to access information relating to patients, as opposed to relying on the judgment of a clinician or doctor to pass on that information.

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