Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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661. To ask the Minister for Health if all electronic correspondence between him and either of his two special advisers regarding all aspects of the CervicalCheck crisis will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24560/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In order to provide a clear picture of the circumstances in relation to the CervicalCheck clinical audit process, it is essential to establish the facts in a comprehensive and precise manner. It is also important to restore the trust and confidence of women in CervicalCheck. 

In this regard, I have appointed Dr Gabriel Scally, President of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine, to carry out an independent Scoping Inquiry and this is now well underway. My Department has established a dedicated team to oversee and progress the CervicalCheck records search, which is being informed by the broad Terms of Reference of the Inquiry. To that end, the Department has committed to a comprehensive trawl of records including as far back as 2006. This is a considerable undertaking covering paper, electronic and email records.

The trawl is being undertaken in as systematic a way as possible to ensure its thoroughness with a view to identifying with reasonable certainty all potentially relevant records held by the Department. Quality assurance processes and a system of checks are also being put in place to ensure the process’ overall validity and reliability. The format of any planned publication of the output of this process will be considered in due course but it of course includes correspondence between my advisers and me.