The HSE has been urged to clarify if there are any clinical implications for the 800 women who did not receive smear test results as a result of an IT glitch.

An unaccredited Manchester laboratory that screened more than 90,000 smears without the knowledge or approval of CervicalCheck should be the focus of an ongoing expert review of the screening history of women with cervical cancer, patient representatives have said.

Labour Party health spokesperson Alan Kelly has called on the HSE to honour its commitment to women who underwent a repeat smear test that they would have results back in four to six weeks.

Just 7% of women who got a repeat smear test from a lab used by CervicalCheck have received their results.

The mother of five who settled for €7.5m her action over her CervicalCheck smears was buried last week after losing her battle with cancer which had spread to her brain.

Intense negotiations are ongoing with US lab Quest and MedLab Pathology in Dublin.

Kerry mother Emma Mhic Mhathúna and her five children who sued over CervicalCheck smears have settled their legal action for €7.5m.

The two external labs at the heart of the CervicalCheck controversy were paid a total of €12.4m in the past two years for their services.

At least 10 more women have begun taking legal action against the HSE and testing labs after their cervical smear tests were bungled.

Sheikh Mohammed has been exonerated from any direct involvement in the Godolphin doping scandal.

Half of all cervical smears are still being sent to the US for analysis even though a Dublin laboratory has the capacity to process them all in Ireland.

A €1M fit-out wraps up this weekend as the covers come off Munster’s largest retail letting — UK giant DFS opens its second Irish store, in the office and retail City Gate Park, Mahon, Cork, this Saturday.

A SERIES of deals and employment is expected to flow at the €70 million City Gate Park, built over the past 18 months in the face of international recession, and where Taoiseach Enda Kenny tomorrow officially opens the 75,000 sq ft stand-alone building bought by Dell/Quest.

Cervical smears are still being sent for screening to a firm in the US six years after the HSE said the outsourcing would be short term.

Six years ago, the Health Service Executive cleared a backlog of cervical smear tests by using a company in Texas to assess almost 40,000 samples.

THERE was a poor level of office space take up in Cork in the second quarter, according to a new report from DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, with a notable increase in supply of offices, mostly from the release of second-hand properties, along with the rapidly completing City Gate Park in the Mahon suburbs where Quest are set to take 80,000 sq ft of the 250,000 new building.

Dell has agreed to buy Quest Software, which makes programs to manage corporate computer systems, for $28 a share, ending a bidding contest with Insight Venture Partners.

Quest Software, the Cork-based company which agreed to be bought by a group led by Insight Venture Partners, says it has received a higher offer of $27.50 (€22) a share in cash, the third buyout increase announced this year.

Quest Software, which makes tools to help companies manage computer systems, has accepted a sweetened $2.17bn (€1.73bn) $25.75-a-share bid from Insight Venture Partners and agreed to the addition of Vector Capital to the buyout group.

Insight Venture Partners topped a $25.50-a-share bid that Quest Software received from an unidentified suitor, intensifying a takeover battle for the software maker, according to a person familiar with matter.

Quest Software, a maker of software to help companies manage cloud computer systems, rose above a new $25.50-a-share cash buyout offer from a strategic bidder that topped a previous agreement with Insight Venture Partners.

Irish raiders Call To Battle and David Livingston feature among just five declared runners in the MBNA Chester Vase on Thursday.

Quest Software rose above the $23-a-share offer from Insight Venture Partners to take the technology company private, signalling investors may anticipate higher bids.

Harry Redknapp was cleared today of taking bungs in an offshore tax dodge.

Harry Redknapp fought back tears in court as he fiercely denied telling his tax evasion trial “a pack of lies”.

Harry Redknapp threatened to “sue the bollocks” off a journalist as the football boss and his former employer gave conflicting excuses for an alleged offshore tax fiddle, a court heard yesterday.

PHARMA ingredients may represent just 4% of Kerry Group’s business, but they can play a useful role in the company’s global expansion strategy, according to an equity report by Davy stockbrokers.

THE building of office facilities for 2,000 hi-tech workers in a €50 million expansion of the City Gate complex in Cork will lead to 300 construction jobs over the next 18 months.

Fears are growing for four Americans whose yacht was captured a by pirates in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange believes the publication of the Iraq war logs gave victims of the fighting a “sense of justice”.

THE presence of key technology companies such as Apple, EMC, Solarwinds and VMware coupled with a supply of quality third-level graduates played a key role in securing 150 high tech jobs with Quest Software in Cork.

CLOUD computing and data management specialists Quest Software is to announce the creation of 150 jobs in Cork today.

World snooker chairman Barry Hearn claims John Higgins is the ideal person to lecture young players on the dangers of becoming embroiled in betting scandals.

BARRY HEARN yesterday claimed snooker would lead the way in tackling corruption in sport as he promised a “zero tolerance” approach at the launch of a new integrity unit.

Suspended former world champion John Higgins will play a role in World Snooker's new measures to ensure the integrity of the sport.

WE have learned one thing for sure of late – riding arrangements for Ballydoyle-trained horses have to be treated with more than a hint of caution.

Owner Noel Martin’s shock had yet to subside following Jacqueline Quest’s demotion into second in the StanJames.com 1000 Guineas.

RENAULT’S future in Formula One hangs in the balance ahead of today’s extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council into the circumstances surrounding Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

THE National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) confirmed that it has signed an initial two-year contract with Quest Diagnostics in the US to provide laboratory testing services for the national cervical screening programme.

THE row over the Government’s decision to select a US company to process Ireland’s cervical smear tests deepened last night after a Fine Gael TD claimed cancer could go undetected in up to 2,000 women.

A number of consultant pathologists from Irish hospitals have reportedly expressed major concerns about plans to outsource Irish smear tests to a US company.

A FIERCE row has broken out over claims that the US medical firm contracted for the national cervical cancer screening programme has a poor accuracy rate compared with its Irish rivals.