Labour Health spokesperson Alan Kelly T.D slams Taoiseach over cervical cancer scandal

A Tipperary TD spearheading the cause of women affected by the cervical cancer check scandal has slammed Leo Varadkar’s response, saying the Taoiseach needs to fulfill his promise to the women that they will not be dragged through the Courts.

Nenagh based Labour Health spokesperson Alan Kelly TD has said the Taoiseach needs to come “out of hiding and speak to the nation” this week on the cervical check controversy.

Both Mr Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris have not faced questions on the case of Ruth Morrissey, since her case emerged.

Ms Morrissey, who had two incorrectly read smear tests , is being represented by Cashel based Solicitor Mr Cian O’Carroll.

Mr O’Carroll has said his client has yet to receive a request to re-enter mediation on his client’s court case, which went before the High Court last week.

In May, the Taoiseach pledged that the women affected by the scandal could undergo mediation, sparing them the ordeal of a Court case. Some 209 women are known to be affected, while 10,000 women have contacted a helpline amid fears over their smear tests. Mr O’Carroll said the Taoiseach made a clear promise by the State to step into the role as a key defendant to settle these cases, and if there was a mediation, the mediation would be conducted against the laboratory, and with the State on the side of the women.

Mr O’Carroll told RTE Radio One: “That is absolutely not what has happened. We’ve seen a mediation where the State not only acted hand in glove with the laboratory defendant, but subsequent to the mediation, they joined with that defendant in issuing a threat to the plaintiff woman. A threat that if she did not accept the offer, she would be exposed to the risk of costs.” On Friday, Mr O'Carroll said Ms Morrissey and her husband were deeply hurt that the State had sought to misrepresent the "sham mediation.”

Deputy Alan Kelly said: "The Taoiseach and his Government are in hiding on the Cervical Check controversy. What happened to Ruth Morrissey this week was a disgrace heaped upon a national disgrace. The way she has been callously treated by organs of the state while the Taoiseach sits idly by is unforgivable.

“The Taoiseach promised wholeheartedly in May that the state would take over the cases of all the women affected and take over the labs component of those cases if necessary in order to avoid these women having to endure the spectre of having to appear in court and go through publicly their own private health details,” said Deputy Kelly.

Full story in this weeks' Tipperary Star.