Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First of all, a compensation tribunal is far less adversarial than any court system. We know that from experience in a variety of medical scandals going back to the various scandals relating to blood products and so on. In my view the tribunal is far more effective than a courts process. Ms Justice Mary Irvine is no longer in a position to take up the position as chair having been appointed President of the High Court, therefore, the Minister for Health is working with the Attorney General to make sure that the positions will be filled to allow us get the tribunal under way as quickly as possible.

Regarding outsourcing, we need to be honest with ourselves and everybody here that we must be clear about our objectives. As Minister for Health, I was involved in setting up BreastCheck. That took quite some time - four years or more - and we built it up nationally to world-class standards. I recall the huge waiting lists for testing for symptomatic cervical cancer patients. They were waiting for a long time. Outsourcing at that stage became an intervention that almost eliminated those waiting lists.

Following on from that, the whole idea of a screening programme using that model was developed. I accept the Deputy's point that it is not optimal, but we simply would not have a national cervical screening programme if that was not pursued. We need to be honest. The capacity simply was not there at the time and is not there now. We have a decision to make if that is the route people want to pursue. We simply will not have a national screening programme for the foreseeable future. It has saved many lives. That has to be said. Many women are alive today because of the programme. I certainly take the point on oversight and quality control. I answered that in reply to the first question. That should be the case and it has to happen.

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