Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Butler for raising this important issue. I assure her that resourcing is not an issue in relation to the helpline. Whatever resources are required will be provided. As the Taoiseach outlined earlier, it is important that the message does not go out that nobody in CervicalCheck is bothered to return these calls. These are calls where women are, rightly, asking for specific information on their screening histories. That information has to be obtained and relayed to a woman by a clinician, be it a doctor or nurse. Often, these conversations take a significant period of time. Even as recently as the weekend, more staff were assigned to the helpline. The commitment given by Mr. Damien McCallion yesterday was that the overwhelming majority of calls will have been returned by this weekend. The Deputy is correct that staff are working their way through this and are prioritising calls on the basis of clinical need and level of concern rather than just the date the call was logged.

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