Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister in passing referred to the new lab at the Coombe Hospital. By all accounts, it is a very fine facility. The big issue with it was that there were no staff. Certainly up to recently there were not adequate staff to deal with CervicalCheck smears. I asked a parliamentary question on this in December. The response indicated only private work was being done there. We were told the CervicalCheck programme smears would be processed at this lab very shortly. Will the Minister update the House on where we are at in that regard? When does he expect the new lab in the Coombe Hospital to be fully operational? It is a matter of serious concern that all of the CervicalCheck smears are going to the United States, notwithstanding that Dr. Scally said he did not have concerns about quality in that lab. That is an important point. The aim has to be to bring back all of the analysis of smears as quickly as possible.

I also raise with the Minister a question I raised previously regarding the Minister's amendment No. 19 on the Part 5 review. I believe that, in the main, the provision is good but there are two areas where I have proposed amendments. The first concerns the statement in respect of the procedure for open disclosure under Part 5. Again, this is a critical area. Section 41(2) states that, without prejudice to the generality of section 76, the Minister "may make guidelines". I propose that the word "may" be substituted with the word "shall", so we do not leave anything open to a lack of clarification and there is no confusion. If we are seriously committed to open disclosure, in my view the Bill should provide that "the Minister shall" make guidelines.

Similarly, section 51(1) concerning the review information states that "A health services provider may, at any time after the holding of the Part 5review disclosure meeting, provide information" on the guidelines. My amendment would change this wording to provide that a health services provider "shall" make guidelines. It is only fair that if there is a serious commitment to open disclosure, we would be absolutely clear about that, there would be no confusion about it and the onus would be on the Minister and healthcare provider to make those guidelines, rather than having this left as a possibility. We should be very clear that there "shall" be guidelines provided. I ask the Minister to look favourably on my two amendments in that regard.

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