The second report from the Scally Inquiry into the CervicalCheck scandal is due to be published today.

The report will focus on the outsourcing of Irish smear tests to labs in the United States.

It emerged last year that the HSE and Cervical Check were not aware that one of the US labs it had hired to process smears was sub-contracting the work to other facilities.

The analysis was being conducted in a number of locations in the US – including Florida and as far away as Hawaii.

The second report investigates the issue further and is expected to reveal the extent of the sub-contracting.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems at the School of Human Sciences in DCU, said there is uncertainty over what the HSE knew and when.

“It was not clear whether the HSE were aware that tests were being done, not just in the laboratories that they themselves had visited, but also in other laboratories belonging to the same companies in other parts of the US,” he said.

“What had happened was that a laboratory say in Florida would send tests perhaps to Texas and Ohio.

“The HSE knew about the laboratory in Florida but it is not clear whether they knew about the laboratory in Texas.”

The report will be considered by Cabinet this morning and is due to be published later.