Victims of the cancer scandal are wronged again by Government

WE STARTED out with a scandal about smear tests. Three months on we have another – a scandal of broken promises to dying women. Since April the Government has been making hollow commitments to the women caught in this torment. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said they would not be put through the legal mincer.

They were. In April we were told we would have a review finalised by May. Yesterday, Health Minister Simon Harris told us the HSE has sent an initial letter advising women that they will be receiving another letter in a week’s time seeking their consent to participate in the review of the 3,000 cervical smear slides. A letter about a letter. So it has not yet even begun. At this rate the heartbreaking truth is that some of these women will have died before they have the most basic answers.

Far from providing a mechanism that would protect families and victims from further hardship, the Government is still merely looking into it. A High Court judge is to finally examine alternative approaches to compensation, including a redress scheme. But as the husband of one victim asked: why has a judge only now been tasked with addressing this?

It seems Mr Harris has had “to balance timelines with getting the process right”. That’s where we are, “balancing timelines .... ”.

Solicitor Cian O’Carroll, who represents some of the women, is not impressed. He senses a “return to the line that the 221 women affected were part of some normal screening errors”.

They were not. “They are a special group selected by CervicalCheck due to the degree of the error that was picked up following a review of their case,” Mr O’Carroll said.

If they were seriously wronged once, it looks like they may be again because while the State is talking big, it is still acting small.

Mr O’Connor attacks the Government for “pushing the women out front to do the fighting for them, while the State effectively hides behind them and says we can’t do anything because our hands are tied”.

TOO often in the past year when confronted by myriad failures with catastrophic consequences for the lives of ordinary people, ministers – all the way up to the Taoiseach – have sought to strike a note that would put them on the same scale as those who have been grievously let down. Thus, Leo Varadkar was sorry for the plight of Ruth Morrissey, Eoghan Murphy upset at the number of children living in hotels, and Simon Harris says he’s angry. Angry and upset, to be precise. Not as upset as Ms Morrissey, and her family, he accepts, but upset. Upset in the casual way that the average person who does not have only months to live, or does not have direct executive responsibility, might be. Mr Harris’s role is not that of a visitor to the hospital, with a bag of oranges and grapes to offer sympathy and comfort. Whatever uncomfortable feelings he may have, do not displace his responsibility to act. He and Mr Varadkar are supposed to be sorting out this mess. It is time for the Government to throw away this particular tuning fork that is supposed to attune it to empathy.

It is clearly not on the same emotional range as many of those suffering due to a lack of support.

Mr Harris has said it is not acceptable that Ms Morrissey has been forced to take her case to court. He sees it as unfortunate that the mediation approach hit a “roadblock”.

The State itself is becoming the roadblock. The contrast could hardly be more stark.

We have seen super-human dignity struggling in the face of terrible odds as these women attempt to get on with life, as a Government mouths soothing words but fails to give them meaning.