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

I appreciate the Deputy's comments fully. I know the sincerity with which he makes them because he has been involved in this issue for quite some time and has been engaged with a number of the women who have been to the forefront of the campaign for greater disclosure and transparency around the programme itself and, above all, to enhance the programme in order that it can serve women in this country for the better into the future. Without question, as I have said, the programme failed women in this country. I agree with the Deputy that in situations like this one, non-adversarial approaches should always be the first to be pursued and the State should be very proactive in providing the mechanisms, be they compensatory tribunals or other non-adversarial fora, where the issues can be dealt with in an honest and transparent way. However, that is challenging and it is easier said than done. At this particular point, I think it is important that the tribunal gets established quickly, and appointments be made to the tribunal to enable it to get up and running. I will work with the Deputy in regard to the Civil Liability Act. I think it is a fair point that where someone passes away in such a situation, the family would have an entitlement to pursue those issues.

In terms of the testing being brought home, I am in favour of developing our own capacity on the testing front. We hope, with the passage of time and being in a position to deal with Covid once and for all, that we can then restore the national cervical screening programme, because its overall impact has been to prevent many cancers and prevent many women from dying. We cannot undermine that kind of work, which was ongoing prior to Covid. It is important that we be very clear collectively in terms of the route we want to travel on this. In other words, I have no issue with building up - in fact, I would support building up - our own capacity in terms of laboratory testing and being able to do it here. Moving to the HPV programme means testing is now far better and will give far better outcomes and give certainty and precision around testing. Once the threat of Covid recedes, we must be in a position to make the programme available to as many women as we possibly can. That has to happen in the short term. Over time, I take the Deputy's overall point about the importance of developing the capacity within the State to do the programme here.

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