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LAST UPDATE | 1 Aug 2018
VICKY PHELAN SAYS Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has assured her that women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy will not be forced to go to court for compensation.
After meeting the Taoiseach this afternoon, Phelan said in a statement to the media that Varadkar promised her that the state will endeavour to settle all cases through mediation.
“Where mediation doesn’t work and labs are contesting an alternative approach will be sculpted out,” Phelan explained.
The Limerick woman added that a judge has been approached to work on an alternative approach to what is currently happening in the case of Ruth Morrissey.
“In Ruth Morrisey’s case the State Claims agency has agreed to return to mediation talks when Ruth’s case is back in court in September,” Phelan added
I have been informed by the Taoiseach that the State Claims Agency has claimed that expert reports for Ruth were not ready and so an offer could not be made. Ruth’s legal team may well dispute these facts but I was very frank and brutally honest with the Taoiseach about how harrowing the courtroom is for women, since I’ve already been through this, and I made it quite clear that I don’t want to see any more women being brought through the courts.
In May Phelan called for a public examination of the screening scandal. Speaking to the media today she said that the Taoiseach confirmed that a public commission of inquiry is also his preferred option for investigating the controversy.
He said that government and opposition are in agreement and if required legislation will be brought forward to ensure that this is public.
Speaking after the meeting the Taoiseach thanked Phelan for taking the time to meet him.
“Vicky and all those affected by the CervicalCheck controversy have made a deep impression on the Irish public and on me,” he said.
He also reiterated that the Government wants to avoid women and their families having to take the stand.
Notwithstanding that parties always retain the right to go to Court, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms must be found which avoid causing unnecessary distress for the women and their loved ones.
The Taoiseach also announced that Justice Charles Meenan has been tasked with identifying further mechanisms to avoid adversarial court proceedings for the women and families.
Break from campaigning
Last night Phelan revealed that she is taking a break from campaigning in relation to the CervicalCheck controversy.
The scandal came into the public eye in April when Vicky settled a High Court action against the HSE and Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) for €2.5 million over incorrect smear test results from 2011, which failed to show she had cancer.
The smear tests of more 200 women may have been incorrect, a HSE audit found, and there has been much criticism over delays in telling those affected. 18 women impacted by the controversy have died.
Despite her cancer now being terminal, Vicky has been campaigning on behalf of the women and families affected, some of whom are also taking legal action.
In a series of tweets sent last night, she said she was “deeply disturbed by the lack of empathy in some quarters towards the women & families affected by the scandal”.
Never missed a smear test
She wrote: “For those of you who are condemning me for ‘bringing down the cervical screening programme’, I never missed a smear and NEVER had an abnormal smear until I was diagnosed in July 2014 with invasive cervical cancer.
“I found out THREE years later, in Sept 2017, that a smear from 2011, which was originally read as No Abnormality Detected’ was, when audited, full of CANCER, not precancerous CINI, II or III but Squamous Cell Carcinoma. P8 for the medical heads.
IF my smear in 2011 had been CORRECTLY read, I would only have had to have a hysterectomy and would have had a 90% chance of being cured. I will be fighting to stay alive for the rest of my life so forgive me if I am angry and upset and fighting for change.
“I WANT a screening programme that I can trust. I have a daughter that I will be leaving behind. So get off your high horses and help me to change and to ensure that we have a screening programme that we CAN trust.”
Many people have praised Vicky for her campaigning efforts, and almost €200,000 has been raised to help fund her treatment.
With additional reporting by Céimin Burke
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Great to see – now lets really tackle packaging waste and force business to make the environmentally correct choice when choosing their packaging – We need to get rid of plastic bottles, plastic wrapping and one off coffee cups and lids
@brian boru:
Bring in another tax…..
@P.J. Nolan: not all taxes are bad – some make sense and others are just greedy – if taxes make it cost effective for a business to do the right thing then it is a good tax in my book. Some are greedy and corrupt like the Irish water plan and need to be fought but smart taxation can be beneficial to society.
All the chocolate bar companies have moved to plastic wrapping because it costs less. Like wise the soft drink companies have moved to plastic bottles because they are prettier. Neither are thinking about the environment and need to be forced to rethink their packaging plans. Taxation is the fastest route to getting these huge companies to change their game plan at the speed we need it to happen.
@brian boru: I would be far more comfortable if chocolate bars once again came in paper and foil. I know they wont recycle the foil but i’m sure it does far less than damage to the environment than plastic.
@Darren Byrne: The plastic gives a longer shelf life so the chocolate companies are using it to give them higher margins at the cost of the environment. Regulatory needs to step in and drive a higher cost to the manufacturer for using the plastic due to the environmental cost. Am sure if the right pressure was applied a solution could be arranged that worked for everyone. The only lever I can think of in this situation is taxation as expecting people to make the change will take generations.
@brian boru: I’m sure it does give longer shelf life, but surely chocolate is a fast-selling item with a high turnover rate? And once bought? I’ve often eaten a square or two and put it away for a week or so, okay, I’m odd, but a lot of people seem to eat bars very quickly once they have some in the house – I’ve even heard of people freezing a bar to keep it for later. I honestly don’t see chocolate as being in any danger of going off before it’s consumed.
It’s fantastic the system works, now let’s solve the plastic bottles ( bottle water ) and the coffee cup problem .
Great and more to be done… especially with plastic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/plasticpledge/?beta=true
Where are all the reusable items stripped out of the WEEE appliances. Is it Ireland, UK, Europe.
Surely it’s not Africa where all that toxic stuff is released in both the air and the soil/water, by burning all that plastic stuff that covers wires and other components by folks trying to scrape a living together ?
Any answers appreciated. Hope I’m wrong.
Is a dildo a small appliance? Just asking
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
If domestic appliances were designed and built to last longer than the now average 5 to 10 years lifespan then recycling would be greatly reduced.The average lifespan of some appliances twenty or thirty years ago was averaging ten to twenty years .Most appliances now have built in obsolescence.
Great, but after the specials on Aldi and Lidl this Sunday, we’ll need extra capacity!
You are going to have a great bunch of lads moistening their lips when you talk about that much copper
This just demonstrates the amount of junk we buy throw out and replace. Thats not sustainable
have your say