MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney hit out at the "utterly irresponsible comments" of Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly, whom she accused of "scaremongering" about cervical cancer screening.
During a debate on the screening programme, Ms Harney told the Dáil that last week "Deputy Reilly said that 2,000 women's lives would hang in the balance. I regard that as an utterly irresponsible statement made for no reason other than to scaremonger. Women have huge faith in the screening service and we want their faith in it to continue," she insisted.
"If we lose 75 women a year as a result of cervical cancer, one would need to multiply that figure by 28 years to achieve the figure of approximately 2,000." Ms Harney appealed to deputies not to try to make political points that have the effect of damaging a service that has a significant reputation.
She also accused Dr Reilly of advancing rumour and innuendo as fact, saying he alleged that an official from the Health Service Executive (HSE) had worked for the company, which won the tender for cytology services and "he wondered what the official's role was in regard to this tender".
Ms Harney said people should have the "courage to withdraw those comments and not have the good name of individuals bandied around by journalists and in other places. It is grossly unfair, misleading and inaccurate. It is fiction and wrong."
But Dr Reilly said no name was mentioned. "Journalists came to me with the name but I would not do anyone the disservice of using his or her name in the House under privilege without absolute proof of a problem."
He said cervical cancer kills more than 70 women a year in this country and afflicts thousands of others. He called on the Minister to introduce a cervical cancer vaccine in conjunction with the screening programme.
Ms Harney said that through the screening programme, 60 of the 75 lives lost annually to the disease could be saved. A national roll-out of the screening programme will begin in the summer and up to 300,000 women aged between 25 and 60 will qualify.
The Minister this week received a recommendation from the National Cancer Screening Service for the vaccine. "I will work on the advice given to me and a decision will be made this summer regarding the vaccine."
Ms Harney had earlier defended the selection of a US company for the two-year contract to carry out the smear tests, pointing out that the company was the largest such facility in the world and its price was one third of that quoted by many of the domestic laboratories.
