Some smear tests taken last year will need to be repeated due to expiration.
Leo Varadkar told the Dáil today that some women will need to undergo repeat tests as their smears had been rendered invalid after they expired.
Women across the country were offered free smear tests last year following the CervicalCheck scandal which saw over 220 women receive false negative results.
Some of those affected by the results, including
Orla Church, have since passed away.
The Dáil heard that the free tests led to an enormous backlog in the programme that left some patients waiting up to six months for their results.
Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin said that the government was warned that free tests would compromise the programme and increase the backlog.
He has asked Minister for Health Simon Harris to address the issue.
The HSE has since said that this repeats are not due to the backlog, but a confusion with the laboratories about when the smears needed to be tested.
Some of the women who will need to take a repeat smear have already been contacted by health officials. The rest are expected to be contacted by the end of next week.
