The Minister for Health has said the ex-gratia payment scheme is under way for women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy and he said letters of invitation were issued to women yesterday.
Speaking in the Dáil, Simon Harris said the Independent Assessment Panel set up by the Government had its first meeting at the beginning of May.
He said the role of the panel is to determine the appropriate amount for the ex-gratia payment.
The minister told the Dáil the same amount would be paid to each woman who is found by the panel not to have had appropriate disclosure.
He said all 221 women affected by non-disclosure would be eligible to participate and he said the terms of the scheme would be available on the Department of Health's website shortly.
He was responding to Fianna Fáil's health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly, who asked Minister Harris why it had taken so long to implement the ex-gratia payment programme.
Deputy Donnelly also asked for the figure in relation to the CervicalCheck smear backlog.
The minister said he did not have that figure to hand and would make it available later.
Mr Harris said that MedLab, the largest laboratory dealing with cervical smears, will have its backlog significantly reduced over the summer months and he said it is his intention to have the HPV test introduced by the end of the year.
He also said the Attorney General was looking at the implications in relation to the High Court decision to award Ruth Morrissey €2.1m over the misreading of smear tests and the failure to tell her about it.
He said everybody was pleased that Ms Morrissey had received justice and he wished her well.
Minister Harris said he wanted the Attorney General to consider the implications of the ruling for the wider health service and once he was legally advised he would brief Opposition parties.
Deputy Donnelly said the ruling had sent "shock waves" across all screening services and doctors were speaking to him about the possibility of having to shut entire screening services down.
Independent TD Dr Michael Harty asked if the judgment had damaged the future of all screening because he said no screening programme could identify 100% of the abnormalities they are looking for.
He said a judgment that delivered on "absolute confidence" misunderstands what screening programmes are all about.
He said medicine is an uncertain business and you were trying to confirm in an area of uncertainty.
Mr Harris said he agreed that screening was not a diagnostic test and there would always be a degree of false positives and negatives even when the HPV test is introduced.
He said he was aware of the concern of the judgment amongst the medical community but he said the implications must be considered in a calm and rational manner.
Minister Harris also said he expects to receive the second report from Dr Gabriel Scally into outstanding issues with laboratories in the US that were involved in the CervicalCheck screening service in the coming weeks.
He was responding to Labour's health spokesperson Alan Kelly who said he was becoming concerned about the report because the health committee had been told on 13 February that the report would be published imminently.
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