Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the absence of the advice of the Attorney General, which I appreciate takes time and, obviously, will not be fully shared with the House, although some version of it can and should be shared, the chief medical officer may have a role in engaging with the clinical community because, as has been pointed out, there is a vacuum and those in the medical and clinical community would greatly benefit from some direction. We are all very conscious that we do not want any knee jerk reactions.

We want to be measured. However, when someone like Professor Donal Brennan states that a woman with an entirely normal cervix could end up having a hysterectomy for no apparent reason other than nobody will say that the sample is normal, that is going to cause an issue, perhaps not in the short term but certainly in the medium term. That is a plea from the medical community for support and assistance. There may be a role in this for the chief medical officer.

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