Cervical smear controversy rumbles on

It’s off to Lisbon for the Eurovision final on Saturday after Ireland’s heroic semi-final victory last night - or something like that.

Leinster are playing the European Champions Cup final (formerly the Hoino) in Bilbao on Saturday as well, so many of our cultural ambassadors will be travelling south to the sun of Iberia this weekend.

Back at home, the controversy over the handling of the cervical smear mistakes by the health authorities continued to rumble on yesterday and will do so today again.

Yesterday, Mary Lou McDonald reiterated her demands for HSE chief Tony O’Brien to resign or be fired, but there is no sign of the Government complying, despite the agreement of some members of the Cabinet.

Abortion referendum: last minute rush to register to vote

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CervicalCheck: Scally says inquiry will be comprehensive and frank

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Cabinet to discuss scoping inquiry

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Canney to find out next week if he keeps assistant whip job

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Sarah Bardon and Martin Wall's reports are here and here, and Fiach Kelly's analysis is here.

The Government’s handling of this political explosion has actually been steady and pretty purposeful, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Health Simon Harris relentlessly keeping the focus of their attention on the women concerned and the need to find answers.

Perhaps significantly, the panic and inconsistency of Varadkar’s previous scrapes on the Garda whistleblowers and the Strategic Communications Unit have been noticeably absent.

In this regard of course, having O’Brien still in situ does suit the Government – he remains the target, rather than the Government.

This morning Harris and O’Brien are due at the health committee for the next round.

Facebook unfriends foreign ads

In the referendum campaign, there was a significant development yesterday when Facebook announced it would no longer accept foreign ads.

As our report details, Facebook was less than forthcoming about the details of how its new ban will work.

Indeed, just last week the company’s representatives were telling The Irish Times that they couldn’t break out the referendum ads from all the other ads the site carries. Now they say they can.

Observers and repeal campaigners (though they have an interest in doing so) have been pointing out with increasing urgency for the past week or two that online advertising – some of it untraceable and misleading – has been increasing in volume and reach as the campaign intensifies. Someone is getting in the game.

Now it is true that Amnesty, one of the leading organisations campaigning for a Yes vote, trousered a bag of money from international philanthropist and campaigner for liberal causes George Soros last year.

The No campaigners love pointing that out; Amnesty hates it and points our fairly that it is fully registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission for the referendum and uses no foreign money for this campaign.

What is indisputable is that there is significant foreign interest in the vote.