John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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2325. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the CervicalCheck Tribunal; if there has been further engagement with a group (details supplied); the actions taken to address the concerns of the group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20589/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The CervicalCheck Tribunal was established on 27 October 2020 under the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019. Establishment of the Tribunal was finalised with the appointment of the nominated members to the Tribunal with effect from 1 December 2020 and the Tribunal has now begun to receive claims.

I have had a significant level of engagement with the 221+ Patient Representative Group, working with them to progress issues they had raised in respect of the Tribunal and CervicalCheck cases more generally. This engagement which took place largely during the period between establishment of the Tribunal and the appointment of the Tribunal members, included a number of meetings as well as detailed constructive correspondence on the issues raised. Significant progress was made through this engagement; however, it was not possible to resolve all of the issues raised by the group in the way that they wanted them to be addressed.

I will continue to work with my Department to address the concerns the group have raised where possible and while there is no ongoing engagement with the group in respect of the Tribunal, engagement continues through other mechanisms such as the CervicalCheck Steering Committee, which has held three meetings this year, the most recent of which was on Wednesday 14 April.