Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much. I agree that CervicalCheck, alongside the HPV vaccine for girls, has been successful in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer in Ireland. It has led to women being diagnosed with cervical cancer sooner, which has resulted in a fall in the number of cases of cervical cancer and the number of deaths resulting from cervical cancer. Overall, both CervicalCheck and the HPV vaccine have made a huge difference with regard to women's health. I very much agree with the Deputy on that.

The damage to the programme was not done by the Minister for Health but by the scandal of non-disclosure. The officials the Deputy quoted and the conditions he mentioned were at the centre of that scandal. On 1 May 2018, the Deputy himself was very critical of those officials. He said they were cold and calculating and suggested they may have been involved in illegality or in a conspiracy. In his comments on 1 May he was extremely critical of the same people he is now quoting.

As the Deputy knows, the backlog of smear tests is very significant. While the clinical risk is minimal, there are tens of thousands of women who are waiting far too long to receive the results of their smear tests, which is causing anxiety and worry. I understand that. It is a big problem which we need to get on top of. Approximately 100,000 more smear tests were carried out last year than in the previous year. That was down to two factors, namely, the fact that an out-of-cycle smear test was offered and the increase in the number of women taking up the offer of cervical screening. The increase was not solely down to the extra out-of-cycle smear tests; it was also down to the increase in the number of people attending for smear tests who otherwise would not have attended. It is a positive thing that more people were attending, but it meant that there were many more smear tests than the system and laboratories could handle. As a result, while the majority of women are getting their results within 15 weeks, in some cases women are waiting as long as 33 weeks. Obviously, that is not acceptable.

I am informed by the HSE that it has now sourced additional laboratory capacity, which will allow it to reduce the backlog. We should see that backlog decreasing over the coming weeks and months.

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