Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Róisín Shortall for raising this issue because it is a matter of concern for her and the House. The 1,631 cases to which she referred were not part of the CervicalCheck system and did not come through its process. The women concerned were not included in the CervicalCheck audit of its client base. As the Deputy stated, they are now being included. Each case will have to be gone through to identify whether there is a history which can be checked to see if anything was missed. The identification and analysis of these cases are quite time-consuming. Some 987 have been identified and excluded. A process will be put in place to identify and work with the remaining women involved. They will have access to the new international clinical team appointed by the Government and the audit of their cases will be carried out under its oversight. There will be full international team oversight of the standard of the audit. Those carrying out the audit will assess the clinical significance of any misreading of a smear and work with the women concerned to identify what happened and the potential consequences. They will have the support of the new team, with existing services.

On access to services, should there be a case in which an individual developed cancer following an undisclosed misread smear, such an individual will have access to the services decided on by the Government for the 209 women, of whose cases we are aware. Any such woman will have access to the service package put in place. These cases are being taken extremely seriously. However, there are a large number of cases which must be worked through individually and there is less ease of access to their histories compared to those of women who were dealt with by CervicalCheck. I am assured that work is being done and that the women concerned will have the support of the international clinical team which will work with them in any such case revealed.

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