Smear test recheck is a ‘bigger job’ than expected

THE re-examination of 3,000 cervical smears will be ‘a bigger job’ than expected due to legal advice to the Government that it must seek the consent of all those who gave the samples.

This was the explanation given by the Taoiseach when asked in the Dáil why the re-check of the smear test slides had been held-up. Leo Varadkar said he couldn’t say for certain when it would now get under way but anticipated it would be soon.

‘What we are seeking for women is not just an answer about their slides, but also whether their treatment or prognosis might have been affected. It is a bigger matter than two people just looking at a slide under a microscope,’ he told the Dáil.

‘It is a bigger job than we might have anticipated back in May.’

The preliminary work done by the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology has made the suggestion that women should be asked for consent, the Dáil heard.

‘Things were not done properly in the past and we need to do them properly in the future,’ Mr Varadkar said, after coming under pressure on the issue from Sinn Féin. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald had said a government that understood the urgency and the seriousness of the matters would give a direction to Gabriel Scally, the doctor carrying out the scoping inquiry, to proceed with ‘urgency and efficiency’.

‘The Government should resource those carrying out the work so this can be achieved,’ she said, reminding the Dáil of difficulties Dr Scally’s team had accessing information.

She said of the Taoiseach: ‘I want him to state how it is defensible… that women are still forced into the courts to fight their corner to get their information.’

Mr Varadkar said Dr Scally’s inquiry was independent, and that the Government would not interfere to set some sort of deadline.