The news broke earlier in the year of the CervicalCheck smear scandal and it is most unfortunate that, as a result of this, women have lost their lives. Emma Mhic Mhathúna - rest in peace - was one of those women who campaigned tirelessly until her death on 7 October. Her death is a result of both human error and lack of accountability by the laboratory, the HSE and the Department of Health, under the watchful eye of numerous Governments.

No one in the country will ever forget the interview Ms Mhic Mhatúna did last May on the "Morning Ireland" radio programme where she said she was dying when she did not need to die. This has now come to pass and along with other women, she has lost her life at 37 years of age due to human error. This is unforgivable and there is no accountability.

A number of questions remain unanswered in the midst of other distractions which need to be answered in detail. Earlier in the year it was reported that approximately 3,000 smear tests were to be rechecked. This was a matter of urgency but it has not been mentioned since the summer recess. What is the status of those approximately 3,000 smear tests, and will the Taoiseach make a statement on the matter? What are the details of these results, and have these women been contacted about same?

Over the past couple of weeks, news filtered through which suggested that a new contract was entered into with a US laboratory at the centre of the smear scandal, and clarification must be sought publicly as this is of huge importance for the health of the daughters of Ireland. Is it the case that a new contract was recently signed with the US laboratory, Quest Diagnostics? Who drew up this contract? Who advised on it? What involvement or role did the Taoiseach or Minister for Health have in this given the seriousness of this matter for the health of the women in Ireland? Is there any truth that the laboratory wanted an indemnity clause in the contract for fear of future cases, and will the Taoiseach give a clear, detailed statement on this? How could a contract be entered into with this laboratory given there are still cases pending in the courts and possibly more that have not yet come to light? Why are the Irish citizens being kept in the dark on this important matter? Will the Taoiseach make a statement taking into consideration the importance and seriousness of this issue?

First, I offer my condolences once again to the family and friends of Ms Emma Mhic Mhathúna at what is a difficult time for them, and also to the families of other women who lost their lives to cervical cancer. I assure everyone in this House that Government is deeply committed to ensuring cervical screening continues and provides Irish women with a high-quality service in which they can have confidence.

As I have said before, I am determined that some good should come from all of this. We must make cervical cancer a rare disease in Ireland and we must build a more open and honest health service. We can do those things by continuing with cervical screening, improving the screening programme with new testing, bringing in the HPV vaccine for boys and encouraging parents to ensure their children have that vaccine, reforming our health service, changing our laws about open disclosure and, more important, bringing about a culture in our health service of honesty, openness and disclosure.

The issues the Deputy raised emerged at the outset of the CervicalCheck controversy. Many women were concerned and it is essential we give them the facts, which is why a scoping inquiry led by Dr. Scally and his expert team was established by the Government with the support of the Oireachtas. Dr. Scally provided the final report of his inquiry in September and he gave us a welcome reassurance of the quality and standards of the laboratories being used by CervicalCheck, which he and his team visited. He was satisfied with the quality management process in these laboratories. It is important to say he confirmed he found no reason that the existing contracts for the laboratories should not continue until our new HPV-testing system is in place.

Dr. Scally also said the continuation of screening in the coming months is of crucial importance, an assessment with which the Government fully agrees. Screening does not detect all cancers and pre-cancers but it detects most of them, which saves lives. As Dr. Scally points out in his report, if 1,000 women are screened for cervical cancer, approximately 20 will have pre-cancerous cells or cancer. Screening will pick up 15 of those 20 but it will miss five. It is a misunderstanding to say that missing five of those 20 is negligent. In some cases it may be but in the vast majority it is not. Those are the limitations of screening, unfortunately. CervicalCheck has been successful in reducing cervical cancer rates in Ireland. As stated in the Scally report, the lifetime risk of women developing cancer was one in 135 in 2015, whereas it had been one in 96, which is a substantial improvement, falling by approximately 7% a year.

I am happy to say that heads of an agreement have been signed with the contracted laboratories to extend their contracts pending introduction of the new HPV-testing programme, which allows for the continuation of the existing service without interruption. This follows on from detailed negotiations undertaken by the HSE. Agreement on the extension of these contracts was reached on 13 October but this is subject to formal conclusion of the contract, which has not yet taken place. In these negotiations, discussions focused on extending the capacity of the laboratories to deal with the backlog of smears, which arose as a result of significantly increased demand for repeat smear tests that was seen in recent months for understandable reasons. We must catch up on that backlog, notwithstanding the shortage of cytologists.

I expect to hear more detail because the Taoiseach should give more detail in response to the questions I asked. More than 20 women under the age of 25 have been diagnosed with cervical cancer since the screening programme began a decade ago. Are the Department of Health, the Taoiseach and his Government satisfied that the screening programme should be extended to ladies under the age of 25, in the interests of their health and safety? Do they see a benefit to that and would lives be saved in the future? Will the Taoiseach make a statement on that matter?

I may be a little out of date and out of practice, but the last time I checked the best scientific evidence was that extending cervical screening to women under the age of 25 would not be beneficial. In regard to screening, one must always bear in mind the whole problem of false negatives, with which people are now familiar and which can cause false reassurance. False positives can also be a big problem, where abnormalities are picked up which look like cancer but are not cancer, leading women to have unnecessary further tests, unnecessary procedures and, in some cases, unnecessary operations. When it comes to making a decision about screening, which is not diagnostic, one must weigh up the pros and cons, which there always are, and the best scientific evidence, as I understand it, is that by screening women under 25 the cons would outweigh the pros, which is why it is not being done.

The Deputy also asked about the review of the 3,000 women in his previous question. It is a review of 3,000 women who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer in the past ten years but only 1,850 of those attended CervicalCheck. Others did not participate in screening. Some 1,600 of the 1,850 women have been contacted with letters asking for their consent to look into their cases. It is important we get consent before we look into people's health issues, files and previous tests. Of the 813 consent forms that have been returned, some 97% of the women who have responded agreed to take part in the review.