Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I say once again how saddened I was to hear about the case of Vicky Phelan and emphasise the extent to which I feel for her and her family. I am full of sorrow that she was not diagnosed sooner and wish her and her family the very best on the difficult road ahead. I pay tribute to her for her bravery, particularly in calling on women and men to go for cancer screening which we know saves lives.

I am very angry on behalf of the approximately 160 women who were not told the results of the audit. Even though it would not have made a difference in their case in terms of treatment, the prognosis or outcome because they had already been diagnosed with cancer at that stage, they should have been told. It was information pertinent to their cases, lives and health which they had a right to know.

I know that this controversy is having a huge impact on the women of Ireland. It is about women's health and lives and many women now feel very vulnerable and are worried. It comes after a very difficult year with controversies surrounding issues such as #MeToo, sexual harassment, difficult rape trials and other matters. This country has not always treated women very well and even today perhaps treats them very badly, as evidenced by issues such as mother and baby homes, the Magdalen laundries, the marriage bar and the hepatitis C scandal.

That is why I am determined to get to the bottom of this matter and establish the facts. We do not yet know all the facts, and I ask people not to jump to conclusions until we do that, but we do want to establish the facts. I am determined to restore confidence in our cancer screening and I also want to ensure that this does not happen again.

In terms of the actions that will now take place, there will be a statutory inquiry led by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. We believe that is the best and quickest way to do it. We need answers in months, not years, and it has the skills and the statutory powers to do so. We have also offered a repeat smear test. Any woman who is concerned about her smear test can go to her general practitioner, and if they agree an additional test is warranted, that will be done and paid for. We also plan to move to a more accurate test and will be one of the first countries in the world to do so. We are moving to a HPV-based test for cancer screening.

Every patient who has been affected will be offered an individual clinical review. The approximately 160 who have not been contacted will be contacted today or tomorrow and will be offered an individual clinical review about their case.

As I mentioned, we will now bring forward legislation for mandatory open disclosure to build on the legislation for voluntary open disclosure passed by the Dáil only a few months ago. I have asked the Attorney General to examine if there are any outstanding cases that are similar that we may now be able to settle quickly without requiring further legal actions.

To answer one of Deputy Martin's questions, the Minister was only informed of this case in the week before it was settled. He was informed that the case against the HSE was likely to be dropped or struck out, and it was. He was informed that the case against the laboratory was likely to be settled, as it was. The note reads that patients were informed and that the message had been passed on to doctors to inform their patients. We now know that was not the case in most circumstances. He was also informed that the Department did not consider this to be a patient safety incident as it fell within what they believe to be the normal error bars of screening tests.

In terms of publishing the note, that note will now be published. The Minister did not want to publish the note until he had the permission of Ms Phelan to do so. He has that permission now, and if it has not been done already, it certainly will be done today.

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