Galway University Hospital has apologised to a woman with cervical cancer for a failure to detect an abnormality in her original smear test.

Claire Healy Cashin paid to get her smear results quickly through the private health service, but she said the HSE will not offer her a colposcopy to follow it up through CervicalCheck as she was no longer within the public system.

The HSE has confirmed that around 11,500 women have been affected by a Cervical Check testing problem between 2015 and last year.

Approximately 800 women were not issued with their CervicalCheck results due to a technology issue, the HSE said.

A report examining the scale of outsourcing of smear tests by laboratories contracted to do the work by the HSE will be brought to the Cabinet today.

The lead clinical director of Breastcheck, the country’s breast cancer screening service, says that comments by a judge in relation to screening services are a cause for concern.

A blunt warning from the National Screening Service (NSS) to the health minister about the significant risks that would arise from offering free out-of-cycle smear tests had “nothing new in it” and was not passed on to him at the time, Simon Harris has told the health committee.

A woman who is terminally ill with cancer and who has sued over the alleged misinterpretation of her smear slide yesterday told the High Court she never thought for one second she had cervical cancer because she had no signs or symptoms.

The Tánaiste has dismissed suggestions that the switch to HPV testing to detect cervical cancer is "being long-fingered".

The Northern Ireland Cervical Screening Programme has asked 86 women to arrange a repeat smear following a review of cervical smear tests between April 2018 and June 2018.

GPs warned the HSE chronic backlogs in cervical cancer smear tests were putting the quality and accuracy of the checks at risk five months before the scandal was publicly revealed.

The Health Minister Simon Harris has been strongly criticised over problems relating to delays in smear test results.

A Fianna Fáil TD is demanding that women concerned they are victims of the cervical cancer tests scandal get their free follow-up smear test results immediately - saying she has been waiting four months for hers.

Emma Ní Mhathúna was home alone, aged 23, when someone knocked on her door to tell her her mother, aged 44, was dead.

Latest: The clinical director of CervicalCheck has today admitted that they could have done a better job of informing women about abnormalities in their smear tests.

Fine Gael TD and pharmacist Kate O’Connell has said she booked herself a smear test in the wake of the Vicky Phelan case, and encouraged other women to do the same.

Latest: Outside court Vicky Phelan called for an investigation into the CervicalCheck screening programme.

A hair salon in Dublin is offering women a free blow dry if they get a smear test.

Two minutes of slight discomfort saved the life of Esther Hope when a routine smear test for cervical cancer came back with an abnormal result.