Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thought that the Senator would do so. That is now the agreed policy of the Oireachtas. We have come a long way from very different views, including within my own party, on how the delivery of healthcare should be provided through insurance models, Dutch models, etc., to an agreed platform now that is through universal healthcare. I regularly get misrepresented on this but that is absolutely my view, the view of Government and the view, I think, of all parties in the Oireachtas. That in and of itself is quite substantial progress.

On the issue raised by Senator Nash, yes I am confident the issue would have been resolved because it was being worked on. It is quite clear that it was being worked on, that the IT system was being updated and the like. I am absolutely also confident that it is now being resolved much quicker and much more speedily thanks to that woman coming forward because what appeared to be an individual representation from a woman saying, "Hang on, I went to my GP and my results were not there" provoked questions from my Department to the HSE and to the laboratory, which highlighted the fact that this woman was not on her own.

I fully agree with the comment about confidence in the programme that was made by Senator Nash. I certainly do not attribute this to any comments made in this House this morning but we need to be careful every time an issue emerges about screening that we do not allow a situation to develop whereby women are left unnecessarily worried from a clinical perspective. That is something on which we can all agree, which is not to take away from this mess in terms of communication.That should not have happened. It is right that the HSE has apologised. The matter needs to be resolved. This should not happen again and lessons must be learned.

All of that is true but I am also conscious that many women go for smear tests every year. Thankfully, even through the CervicalCheck controversy, the number of women going for smear tests has increased dramatically . We are seeing new women who have never been screened previously. It is encouraging that, even with all of this discussion about screening, women are going for smear tests in even greater numbers. This shows a confidence in the programme. However, I do not want to have a situation whereby, when something from an administrative or an IT point of view goes wrong, many women are left worried from a clinical perspective, particularly when the advice available to me is that the clinical risk is very low. I hope and expect that the HSE and its clinicians will provide much greater reassurance to women on that matter this afternoon.