Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We all know the screening programme saves lives. Let us be absolutely clear: we believe people should avail of that screening programme. Furthermore, anyone who is concerned should immediately seek to be screened. There is no question about that. The issue at stake – to be honest, the Minister knows this – is whether the standard of that screening system was inferior as a result of the decision to outsource it. That fear was well-flagged by eminent people who had evidence. It is not simply that they thought and speculated. They had evidence based on Quest and the fact that in the USA the particular nature of the screening programme meant that 1.2 out of 100 rather than 1.8 out of 100 – the rate achieved here – from the same sample population was the average rate. That means the tests were missing people who had abnormal cells. The difference is one third and that is very serious.

Were some of the 208 people victims? Were some of the others to whom the Minister referred in the bombshell that has been dropped tonight victims? Were others who have been tested and who may have had false negatives victims of the fact that we may have a screening system inferior to the system we would have had if we had taken the advice of David Gibbons, Sam Coulter-Smith and the scientists? That is very important. There is a political line of responsibility there. Does the Minister agree that it is very important?

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