Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would love to be able to accept the amendment now as it would be easier to do so and would save coming back in the autumn. Being frank, the challenge in accepting it is that it would go much further than I am willing in terms of broadening the scope. Following very significant engagements on the matter, including with members of the Senator's party, I am happy to widen the scope based on what was a very strong view across the political spectrum that we should provide women who said no to the RCOG review with another opportunity to have an independent review.In fairness I do not think the Senator has asked me to but I am not willing to go beyond that and leave this as a standing tribunal for people at any point in the future. The phrase, "or otherwise" is very broad and would effectively create a standing tribunal.

What the amendment has not done for obvious reasons but what I will need to do, and there was a understanding of this in the other House, I will need to be quite prescriptive on how that independent audit works. As Senators will know, we have had the CervicalCheck audit. We have had the RCOG review, which is a very independent and robust process. We obviously need to have a situation whereby it is very clear what the criteria are for the audit and obviously it needs to mirror the RCOG review or something very similar. There is a little bit of work to do to get this right. I am saying on the record of this House, as I said on the record of the other House, I will be back early in the autumn and I have some drafting done on this already to expand the scope to include that group. There is also a lot of work under way on the Scally recommendations on the future of audit. I am not proposing at this stage, and it would be unwise to so do, to expand beyond that group. For that reason and that reason only, I am not in a position to accept the amendment today.