Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be as quick as I can so we can have as many questions as possible. In response to Deputy Healy's point about ministerial responsibility, the Scally report is very clear that I did not know so while I did not cause this problem, I have a responsibility in the office I hold to fix it and to make sure the recommendations are implemented in full. That is what I want to do.

This is a scandal about women not being told and about what Dr. Scally called a laudable audit in terms of its objectives being botched in terms of its execution and the pain it caused. I take Deputy Connolly's point about it not being the job of Members of the Oireachtas to promote screening but there were Members of the Oireachtas - not Deputy Connolly - who allowed the perception that laboratories were not safe to seep out. I do not know about the Deputy but the largest number of queries I received in my office and from women in my own life involved queries about how safe their smear tests would be in terms of the labs to which they were going. Dr. Scally, who we asked to do a job, said they are safe, which is a really important point for us to make.

All Members focused on implementation, which is key to this. I was asked what the implementation structure will be. Dr. Scally has offered to continue to work for the next 12 months on the delivery of the recommendations and to oversee their delivery from an external point of view. I have taken him up on that offer and intend to meet him in the next week or so to finalise how best to do that. Patients will be involved. I would suggest that he attend the Oireachtas Committee on Health. He has already been invited by the Chairman and I know Dr. Scally would be very willing to attend. I suggest that, through that committee, the Oireachtas could play an oversight role in making sure we are making progress and sending reports. I intend to keep to the timeline, as envisaged by Dr. Scally's report in which he asks me to publish a full implementation plan for all 50 recommendations within three months, which is December. That is the timeline to which I am working.

I do not like being adversarial about this but Deputy Bríd Smith said that outsourcing is at the heart of this issue. It is not.

We cannot have our own facts. The Deputy can and has every right to believe we should insource screening. She can and does believe we should do it here in Ireland. That is a perfectly legitimate view to hold.

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