The Government is determined to find out all the facts regarding the cervical cancer controversy, to put things right and restore confidence in the screening programme in the health service, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking at a press conference in Government buildings, he said the Cabinet had agreed a range of actions to provide care and support for all the women affected by the cervical cancer screening scandal and their families.
He said the Government had agreed that all outstanding legal actions would be dealt with sensitively utilising mediation wherever possible.
Mr Varadkar said the Government would “take over” the nine outstanding cases taken by other women or their families against the State and the testing laboratories arising from the false tests.
It would then seek settlements by mediation and pursue the labs for the money, he said. The intention is to avoid having other women or their families, if the women have died, going through trials, like Vicky Phelan did.
“The State is going to be on the side of the women rather than enjoined with the lab,” said Mr Varadkar.
He said the Government would be “strong and decisive in finding out what happened and putting changes in place to ensure it never happened again”.
Accountability
He said individual accountability was necessary but that this should come about through the commission of investigation which had been established.
He said he had not been shown memos on the cervical screening audits which are at the heart of the current controversy, some of which were sent by the HSE to the Department of Health when he was minister for health.
He said these memos had not been shown to his advisors either.
Minister for Health Simon Harris also said that neither he nor his advisors had seen the memos.
Mr Varadkar said he absolutely would like to have known about the issues when he was minister. He said government departments received up to a million documents per year and it was impossible for ministers to read everything. However, he said there were mechanisms in place for important matters to be flagged.
Full disclosure
He said when he was minister for health he had been briefed on other patient safety issues. He said he asked questions on whether full disclosure was being adhered to in such cases and whether someone was looking out for the patients.
Mr Varadkar became emotional at the press conference when asked if he had any words to say to Emma Mhic Mhathúna, the mother-of-five who was given incorrect smear test results and who now has terminal cancer.
“I just don’t think there are any words that anyone can say... certainly there are no words that I can say that can give her comfort at this time,” he said.
“She is 37 years old, roughly my age, could be my sister, could be one of my friends.
“She has young children – it could be my nephews. I’m going to my nephew’s communion tomorrow. When I see them, I see those kids as well.”
