Minister considers public hearings in CervicalCheck investigation

Minister for Health Simon Harris is exploring how to hold public hearings during the investigation into false smear testing for the CervicalCheck national screening programme and its failure to tell the affected women.

Mr Harris told the Oireachtas health committee that he had made initial inquiries with the Department of Justice about creating a "bespoke" commission of investigation, which are typically held in private, to allow people who want to testify in public.

The Government has said that a commission of investigation will follow an initial seven-week scoping inquiry into the scandal that is being chaired by Dr Gabriel Scally, the Belfast-born public health veteran.

“Can a commission hold any of its hearing in public? There seems to be a viewpoint that it possibly can at the discretion of the chair,” the Minister told TDs and Senators during his testimony to the committee.

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Mr Harris was questioned during the lengthy hearing on the Government’s plans to investigate false tests given to 209 women with cervical cancer and how at least 162 of them were not told they were inaccurate.

The Government has ruled out a tribunal of inquiry, one of the most public ways of investigating the controversy, preferring instead to hold a commission of investigation that could report more quickly.

I can't see why they can't push through legislation for a public type of commission of investigation because the outrage that is evident across the country would justify something to be done in public

There was a “legislative conflict” between a “very public” tribunal and a commission of investigation that is “generally not public but quicker”, said Mr Harris, and he was looking at a way of “aligning the two”.

“We don’t want to go down a big tribunal route that will go on forever and ever with very sick women involved; it is not appropriate,” said the Minister.

Redress scheme

The scandal came to light due to the refusal of terminally ill Limerick woman Vicky Phelan to sign a confidentiality clause as part of a €2.5 million High Court settlement with US-based Clinical Pathology Laboratories, which missed her cervical cancer during a 2011 smear test carried out by CervicalCheck.

Ms Phelan was diagnosed with cancer three years later and a 2014 audit showing her original smear test to be inaccurate was withheld from her by CervicalCheck until September 2017.

The 43-year-old mother of two told The Irish Times she refused to sign a gagging clause so as to allow other affected women to be told and she still “firmly believed” that the investigation had to be held in public.

“I can’t see why they can’t push through legislation for a public type of commission of investigation because the outrage that is evident across the country would justify something to be done in public,” she said.

Mr Harris said the Taoiseach has asked the Attorney General to work with the State Claims Agency, which defends litigation against the State, to see if there is a way to allow affected women to avoid a difficult trial and an "adversarial situation", as Ms Phelan had endured last month, where the liability rests with the US labs.

The Minister said the Government would await the findings of the Scally inquiry at the end of June before deciding on a redress scheme to compensate affected women to assess the liability for the State and the labs.