The Minister for Health has rejected claims the national screening service warned him against offering free repeat smear checks in the wake of the cervical cancer scandal.

The former head of CervicalCheck, Gráinne Flannelly has told the Oireachtas that she warned the Government that the free repeats would 'fundamentally undermine the screening programme.'

She said she told her colleagues in the screening service that the capacity was not there to process the tests - and that there would be long delays as a result.

She said those concerns were passed on to the Department of Health within the hour.

However, she said, the department responded by saying that it would proceed with the policy in any case – and Health Minister Simon Harris announced the free repeats later that day.

Minister for Health Simon Harris TD and Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty TD launch the Smile agus Slainte national oral health policy, 03-04-2019. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

Speaking this morning, Minister Harris insisted he was never advised of Professor Flannelly's concerns.

“I never received any contrary advice in relation to the provision of free repeat smear tests,” he said.

“I am very happy to reiterate that point today.

“It is clear though, and I have been making this clear in Parliamentary questions for quite a period of time, it is clear that after the decision was made, some in the CervicalCheck programme did express some concerns in relation to the operationalising of it.”

Backlog

The re-tests have led to a massive backlog, with women waiting up to 33 weeks for results.

Many women have had to be called back to do the tests once again as the delay led to their samples expiring.

Responding to a parliamentary question earlier this year, Minister Harris insisted that neither he nor his officials received advice against the re-tests in advance of the decision.

He said there was subsequent contact from the National Screening Service with concerns - but that they failed to recognise the circumstances of the crisis.

Minister Harris said not providing the free re-tests would have been untenable in the circumstances.

Reporting from Sean Defoe and Kacey O’Riordan