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

I thank the Deputy for that. I am not familiar with that individual case nor is the Minister for Health, but we will certainly check it out. The Minister has undertaken to speak to the Deputy personally afterwards and take any documentation from him. We will see if we can look into it and see if anything that needs to be rectified can be rectified.

Today will be another difficult day for women affected by cervical cancer, and for their families and friends. I hope it will be another step in restoring confidence in the CervicalCheck programme, which we all know has saved many lives, detected cancer early and prevented many hysterectomies and more radical surgeries as a result of that. I know that when the CervicalCheck audit first became public in May 2017, it caused enormous concern and controversy and led to a very difficult debacle that we have all been managing since then.

Looking back on it, I did not handle it in the way I should have. I made some mistakes, as did the Government, the Opposition and, as Dr. Scally pointed out in his report, the media. I hope that on this occasion we will all handle it a little bit better than we did two years ago. It is encouraging that on this occasion it was ensured that the individual women involved got the information, either by letter or in a meeting if they preferred, long before the report came to Cabinet or was published. It is a significant improvement on two years ago that those affected were informed before the report came to the Cabinet or this House or entered the public domain.

The audit will be published at 3 p.m. today. It was discussed at the Cabinet meeting this morning. Patient advocates are also being briefed on it today. Briefings are being provided for members of the Opposition who want them, particularly the relevant spokespersons. Again, that will happen this afternoon. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has agreed to come before the Oireachtas joint committee in the next two weeks to explain its report and to answer any questions Deputies may have about it. It is a very technical and scientific area and the college is better placed to explain it than politicians, although we will do our best. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is the professional body for obstetricians and gynaecologists in the United Kingdom. Its members are experts in their field. It carried out its work totally independent of Government and I thank it for that work, which will help to improve this programme into the future.

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