Before I speak on the issue, I express my sympathies to the family of Laura Brennan, an exemplar in public health, to her parents Bernie and Larry, to her brothers Colin, Fergal and Kevin, and to her uncle Tommy who was an Independent member of Clare County Council. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis. I also mention the former Deputy John Browne, whom I knew well. He was a genial and friendly person and a gentleman to his bones. Again, I express sympathy to the Browne family on their loss and we will probably get an opportunity to make a proper expression of sympathy for the former Deputy Browne.

The context is similar in terms of Laura Brennan. I want to raise the commitments made in terms of the CervicalCheck scandal with the Taoiseach, particularly on behalf of those who are representing those who were affected by that scandal. First, would the Taoiseach commit to an ex gratia payment to cover the independent review of slide costs?

Many individuals are not in the greatest financial situation and have had to pay up to €2,000 because they are required to hire a solicitor and go through all of the procedure for the review. I ask that this be done expeditiously.

In terms of legislation and the Meenan report, it is extremely important that we get a timeline for the publication of the legislation establishing the tribunal. Crucially, there is a need to update the terms of reference for the CervicalCheck steering committee to ensure that the Department of Health and the committee stay on board until the Scally recommendations are fully implemented, the backlog in testing has been cleared, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists review is complete and the HPV screening programme has begun to be rolled out. I am saying this because there was an attempt by the Department of Health to close down the steering committee recently. I have the minutes here that confirm this. That cannot happen until those four areas are dealt with. I ask the Taoiseach to commit to updating the terms of reference to ensure that.

I am sorry, I may not have all the information to hand and will have to ask the Minister for Health to provide a more detailed answer. Only one of those matters relates to promised legislation, and that is the legislation to establish the tribunal recommended by Mr. Justice Meenan. Work on that is advanced. It is one of only six Bills that we have prioritised for this session and we intend to get it done before the summer recess if we can, ideally by June, and I think we can. There have been some concerns expressed by the Judiciary about it but we think they can be resolved and we are keen to have that legislation done to give women an alternative to court to have their cases heard.

On the ex gratia scheme, my recollection is that we have approved that at Cabinet already and obviously it is open to anyone who avails of that ex gratia scheme to spend the money they receive from it as they wish. That scheme relates specifically to the issue of non-disclosure, as opposed to the wider issues.

This is a separate one.

These are quite detailed questions. I have answered the one that relates to legislation. The others do not relate to the programme for Government but I will ask the Minister for Health to provide Deputy Micheál Martin with a more detailed reply.