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

The Deputy has asked the same question again and I can only give the same answer. There are reasons there may be delays in providing records but it is Government policy that records, samples and files, whether they are in electronic or paper format, along with X-rays and other radiology scans, should be provided to patients when requested. The direction has been given to the public bodies concerned and will be given again.

The Government has acted swiftly to establish a serious incident management team, which has contacted all the women affected. We established the scoping inquiry and Dr. Scally produced his first progress report in that regard earlier. He also published a report on one of the terms of reference - (d) - relating to the information provided to women. Although it will be the end of the summer before Dr. Scally concludes his report, he will provide interim reports along the way, which is welcome and valuable.

Part of the delay will also relate to the fact that he is very keen to engage with women and their families individually. I very much welcome that. We have also secured agreement with the Irish Medical Organisation to ensure that women who are concerned can have free consultations with their GPs and repeat smear tests if warranted. We have appointed a team from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology which is going to go through all of the slides again to see what anomalies were missed-----

See this speech in context