Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was hoping the Minister for Health would still be here. In recent times we have been informed that cervical tests were being delayed because of a lack of capacity in the laboratories that test them but over the weekend it was reported that women paying privately receive their results in two to three weeks, which is brilliant for them but not for the 78,000 women who have been waiting up to 28 weeks. They are all being done by the same laboratory, MedLab. I want clarification on what is happening. Why is this happening? How can a private smear test be prioritised over those of the 78,000 women to whom I refer?

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