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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is an extraordinarily serious matter and the Government is taking it very seriously. As the Deputy knows, this was something that was never brought to the attention of the Minister or any previous Minister. The Government has set up a serious incident management team to address this, and as the Deputy acknowledged, a number of changes at senior level have been made. The scoping inquiry has been put in place and yesterday the Minister was absolutely clear, as was the Taoiseach, that full co-operation with the Scally inquiry is demanded of every agency. Moreover, serious unhappiness was expressed by the Minister with the fact that the documentation provided was not in searchable form, which made it difficult for Dr. Scally to do his work. The Minister has made it categorically clear to Dr. Scally that no such interruption in his work will be tolerated, and the Minister has been in touch with the HSE to confirm that.

As the Deputy knows, the Government sanctioned the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to work with the women affected. They are working with them case by case and meeting them on individual basis so their concerns can be fully addressed. In the interim period, Dr. Scally has made some very worthwhile proposals. He has made it very clear that guarantees should be given to women in the consent form that they will receive the information and that full disclosure will occur if any change in information from those smear tests is discovered. New guarantees will be put into the consent form and the HSE has indicated that will happen immediately.

In addition, new information notices are being provided to anyone doing these tests, so that it is very clear to women that there is a possibility of a smear test not being accurate. That is categorically provided. In addition he recommended that women's expenses should be provided for. A payment of €2,000 has been provided immediately, so that no woman has any difficulty in accessing the services that are being made available. The Government has also provided a care package. This is being rolled out to women who need it so that they can have access to care and to support for any expenses that arise.

This inquiry is really important. I believe the Deputy's question was addressed yesterday by the Taoiseach. He pointed out that a commission of inquiry results in longer delays. Each person will have to be lawyered up. We have seen these commissions' record of running for a very long time. Many of these women do not have such long periods to wait. It is really important that Dr. Scally, who we appointed, is allowed to do the work effectively, as he will do. He has already proved his effectiveness in the interim report he has given.

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