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A SUPPORT GROUP representing women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy has told the Health Minister it has no confidence in a Government tribunal being set up to examine the scandal.
The 221+ group wrote to Stephen Donnelly today accusing the Government of “ignoring” it and of “playing politics” with the issues affecting women impacted by the controversy.
The group was set up in the wake of the original CervicalCheck scandal by former health minister Simon Harris.
The minister brought a memo to Cabinet last month that would set up the long-awaited tribunal to investigate negligence in the State’s cervical cancer screening programme. The tribunal was first announced by government in 2018.
However, campaigner Vicky Phelan expressed anger about the establishment of the tribunal at the time, saying that women and families were not afforded an opportunity to respond to the minister’s decision before it was announced.
Discussions have continued in recent weeks, but a letter from the group to Donnelly today accused the Government of changing its position and suggested that it increasingly viewed further dialogue as “pointless”.
The group said in a statement that it wrote to Donnelly following comments by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the Dáil yesterday, which the group said referred to movements on the tribunal and also mentioned a further Cabinet review next week.
“It seems that that we are back to learning about Government’s views on the CervicalCheck Tribunal at the same time as the public,” the letter read.
“We are getting to the point where this discourse is pointless when what we have offered by way of input and evidence is either being ignored or we are being talked over.”
The group also re-iterated that it had no basis to express confidence in the proposed tribunal.
It added that it believed “time is up” to discuss the tribunal, and that the group’s executive committee would tell its members that it would stop doing so by the weekend if the minister could not provide a basis for discussions to continue in the coming days.
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RIP poor Lady, the warning should be red warning alert NOT orange!
@Sean Murphy: It clearly is BAD enough for a red warning alert hence a death ,trees down power outages etc,takes alot of strong BAD wind to blow away a caravan however it’s NOT the time to be commenting on that poor lady as she is dead so have some RESPECT SEAN
@Jan O’Sullivan: but didnt lots of people yesterday give out about sensationalism by the media on weather warnings yesterday.hope they feel foolish today.
Would all weather warning smart ass whingers please give over. You know who you are and you all post the same pathetic jokes and moans every time a weather warning is issued and reported on. Do you all get it now? Do you understand why?
“First storm of the winter season”… September is winter now?
@Ciaran Maher: it is in Ireland. 6 months of this stuff, rain, floods, freeze and snow is what I’m predicting!
Only went live when it hit Dublin.
@BLACKBERRY: really?? Living in Dublin and it’s like this since about 7 30 am. This starts at 10 . Get a grip will ya
@BLACKBERRY: grow up
Wicklow should be in the orange weather warning as well. There are trees falling down here in Bray
One man lost his life down in slieve gullion forest park after a tree fell on him…Rest In Peace.
The whole of Shankhill has lost power apparently, have to work from home…lots of traffic lights out. Be careful people
Tree down in the lane between Ongar and Clonsilla. Fire brigade present.
When are the shops I have 2 work later!
have your say