Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with the Deputy on that. The least women deserve is a full understanding and truth around the timelines and the pressures involved in this process. Many people will understand the reason for those pressures. We have a finite number of laboratories we have contracts with and with which we work. Repatriating laboratories for testing will not solve the problem in the short term. We have received assurance from Dr. Scally on the quality of the laboratories we currently use. There are medium-term planning issues that will undoubtedly progress but in the short term we need to be able to provide reassurance to women on what they can expect from this service in terms of timelines and accuracy and integrity in the system.

I will commit to the Deputy that we will certainly endeavour to make sure that everybody who has a smear test gets a very clear picture in terms of the estimated accurate times they are likely to have to wait to get back their results. I believe that is the least we should be doing.

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