Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said that his response answered the question. The RCOG review will commence because slides will be transferred but this will take a period of time. I am looking for detail on this from the Minister of State. It will take at least six months but I do not believe it will be concluded by the end of this year. That is a failure of this Government.

The Taoiseach failed these women with his foolish commitment on "Six One" that they would not end up in the High Court. They are going to end up in the High Court in the coming weeks and months. I guarantee the Minister of State that. The Taoiseach made that commitment again in conversation with Ms Vicky Phelan, which she has spoken about.

Some of the women who are not part of this audit and who are part of the second tranche through the National Cancer Registry are in a very bad situation, unfortunately. They cannot avail of the assistance that is being given to the women who are part of the audit and the programme that was put in place to support them. That has to change as it is not acceptable. They are in the same situation as the women who are part of the audit but they are not getting the support of the Government. I ask the Minister of State to address that.

There is a backlog of cases where women who are waiting for reviews are waiting up to 20 weeks for checks. There is no prioritisation in respect of women who need to be prioritised. If one is going for one's three yearly review or if one needs to be prioritised, one is still in the same pot. That is not acceptable. When will the 20-week period be reduced to what is an appropriate time limit?

A matter that is really bugging me is that in October I raised the issue of Pembro being made available to all women at stage four cervical cancer whose clinicians advocated for it. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and Professor Michael Barry of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, NCPE, said that women would get this. Over Christmas I have been left in the difficult situation of taking calls and receiving messages from women who want to go on this drug. They want to know if they can say "Yes" and start it given these public commitments. The Government, however, has still not confirmed that it will pay for the drug.

I am left in a situation where I had to advise them that in order to help prolong their lives they should take the drug. Why in the name of God has the Government not come out and said that the women will be allowed to take this drug and that it will be paid for?

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