The Taoiseach once made the very unexpected admission that he would nearly become a socialist when he saw the way drug companies profiteer. That was in response to a question I put on cystic fibrosis. It applies now in respect of pembrolizumab. What progress has been made since Vicky Phelan came in here with Áine Morgan and Tracey Brennan who are in their 30s and 40s and told Deputies and Senators that they feel they are too young to die and they want equal access to pembrolizumab which has played a huge part in shrinking the tumours of other women?

Women whose tests were messed up by the State are getting access but unfortunately the women who did not have their tests messed up cannot get access.

We are talking about a small number. Could the Taoiseach now tell us that these women will be able to access the drug and that doctors should be allowed to prescribe whatever they feel is effective, and has proven to be effective, for other patients without waiting two years for a licence to be made available for its use for cervical cancer? Is it not time this country looked at bringing drug companies under public control so that they do not profiteer at people's expense?

It is not correct to say the tests were messed up either by the State or by the laboratories. That was true in some of the cases but we do not yet know how many. It was not true in all the cases.

I was speaking of the 221 cases.

We know that for a fact. To answer the Deputy's substantive question, discussions are under way on that. The HSE's medicines management programme has developed a proposal that would allow women who might benefit from the drug to have the drug prescribed and reimbursed, regardless of whether they were caught up in the CervicalCheck audit. Discussions are under way with the company and, ultimately, it will require the agreement of the company and the co-operation of the clinicians to do that.

Does the Taoiseach know how soon that will be?

I do not.