Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We came within hours of the collapse of the cervical screening programme because laboratories did not want to be involved in screening in this country any more in a situation where contracts were due to expire the following week. That would have meant we would have had a pause on screening. That was the priority issue to resolve for the HSE. I pay tribute to those involved, in particular to Damien McCallion for the work he did in ensuring screening could continue.

Deputy Lisa Chambers is correct. I do not intend to in any way minimise the concerns and anxiety that any wait would have on the result of a smear test. We are actively working night and day to try to increase capacity in that regard. I genuinely assure the Deputy that is the case. I also assure her that there is no resourcing issue in the sense that any finances that need to be made available will be made available. It is a capacity issue. I expect that the HSE will make progress in the coming weeks in terms of additional capacity, but this will take some time to work through. The encouraging thing is that even after all of the very important issues that were raised about CervicalCheck, more women are now using the programme than before. Women who had not engaged with the programme previously are now engaging with it so we are seeing some good come out of a very difficult situation in that women who had not signed up for them before are now getting smear tests.

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