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

What Deputy Micheál Martin said is quite correct. Were it not for Vicky Phelan's strength and bravery in refusing to agree to a confidentiality clause, we would not know what we now know. Once again, I wish to put on the record that the State Claims Agency and the State did not request that. In fact, they counselled against that being done.

I would have met Dr. Stephanie O'Keeffe approximately every two months when I met the directorate. Certainly, any conversations we had on CervicalCheck were not about the audit or the issue of non-disclosure. They would have been about the functioning of BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and BowelScreen, which was relatively new at the time. The two issues that would largely have arisen would have been whether the targets for participation in BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and BowelScreen were being met because we were always very keen to ensure that people were participating in those screening programmes. The big job of work that was being done was extending BreastCheck to an older cohort of women. That was one of the main projects about which I would have spoken to her frequently. There were other issues of public health relating to anti-smoking campaigns and so on. Those would have been the main areas on which we interacted.

Deputy Howlin asked me about the package of supports being offered to the 209 women and their families. Public health nurses are visiting each of the women or their next of kin individually, trying to prepare an individualised package. I am sure the Deputy has spoken to some of the people affected and all of those involved have different needs in light of their circumstances. Individual meetings are happening with public health nurses - in people's homes, sometimes in a hotel and sometimes in an office or a hospital. That is ongoing. I am not sure if everyone involved has had such a meeting but many did so last week and many will this week as well. Those packages are being put in place.

Up to now, the plan was to introduce the new test in October. Given the change of personnel and the disruption to CervicalCheck, it is still anticipated that the October target will be met. However, it will be more difficult now given that there is no clinical director and so on. However, it is still intended that it be introduced in October. It will require tendering for labs and for virology for example.

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