Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the establishment at the weekend of the patient support and advocacy group for women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal, 221 Plus. I echo the calls for accountability among managers in the health service for errors that have been made, but that should also be extended to accountability among the political class for the error made in the first instance by outsourcing this vital aspect of women's healthcare.

Over the weekend, there were newspaper reports that the new plan to extend the CervicalCheck contract involved taking back into the public service cytologists from MedLab and doubling the fees payable to Quest Diagnostics. I would like to know the Taoiseach's opinion on this matter. It is an acknowledgement of the failure of outsourcing and privatisation that the Government would take the extraordinary move of taking back into the public service scientists from private labs. Is this the beginning of the end for outsourcing? Are we going to move to repatriate the service in the long run? That is what is required. It means we will have to train adequate numbers of cytologists and invest in public laboratories.

What is happening behind the scenes in terms of indemnifying these laboratories? Is there an agreement similar to the Woods deal being worked on in the background that would allow laboratories that have made mistakes with women's health in the past to get away scot free if claims are made against them in future? This question needs to be answered.

There is a further question on open disclosure. Much has been said in this Parliament about the need for open disclosure. As an elected representative, I have asked not once, twice, three or even four times, but many times, both orally and in writing, for the answer to a simple question, namely, from which labs the 221 failed tests came, but I have not been given one. I am getting a lot of gobbledygook and waffle, but I am not getting an answer. I now know, having seen the evidence, that the answer to this simple question is available. It can be given over. Why is it being consistently blocked?

I have asked the Taoiseach a number of questions. Is there an acknowledgement by the State that outsourcing was at the heart of this tragedy and that, by bringing cytologists back into the public service, we will begin the process of repatriating the service? Why are we doubling the fees to Quest Diagnostics when outsourcing happened in the first instance because it was supposed to save the State 30% of the cost? This is a large and ironic twist in the debacle. Serious questions need to be answered.

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