Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week will commence on 28 January so the announcement that up 6,000 women in this country will have their smear tests reread is ironic. This is a worrying time for the women involved. I know that they are due to receive their letters within the next ten days but we have had so much to do with CervicalCheck over the past 12 months. I know that my own constituent, Vicky Phelan, was the lady who originally sounded alarm bells about CervicalCheck. I know it has been said that the smear tests will be read as a matter of priority but I was frightened to read that it took up to 22 weeks for some tests to be read. That is quite a long time to wait because the norm is between four to six weeks. Twenty-two weeks is a long time for a woman to wait for her results.

I support my colleagues in terms of what was said about pharmacists, which is an issue that concerns the Minister for Health. In the past I raised the issue of pharmaceutical assistants here and, unfortunately, the issue still has not been resolved. Perhaps we could invite the Minister for Health to the House to update us on the smear test issue, the pharmacists and pharmaceutical assistant positions.