Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are two distinct issues. Deputy Harty, as a doctor, will appreciate there is obviously the fact that any screening programme will always have a number of false negatives and false positives. The issue I am concerned about is when individual women's cases were audited - we should talk about when individual audits of women's screenings was carried out rather than in the sense of a global audit - and that information came to the fore why that information was not shared with the women. What I want to do is find a mechanism whereby we can: first, provide them with all the factual information, which I expect they would have had; second, provide them with an appointment with their clinician; and third, provide them with access to an international clinical panel that can objectively review their case, meet the woman and be co-ordinated by a liaison nurse. The Taoiseach, as he outlined in this House today, has asked the Attorney General to consider how we can best look at helping that cohort of women and I expect further developments in regard to that as we further establish the facts.

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