Harris is still in the ‘gap of danger’ and the questions are continuing to mount up
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris and his Government colleagues have only begun to face a mountain of questions which continues to grow.
A week ago the cervical cancer misdiagnoses scandal exploded onto the national consciousness, spreading doubt and fear about the validity of the smear testing system.
Since then the information flows have been slow and incomplete.
The suspicion that far more was to come became reality last night as Mr Harris told the Dáil that up to 1,500 more women could become embroiled in this difficult situation.
These women’s cases were not audited.
So it is not known whether they, like 208 other women, had a delayed diagnosis or not.
Despite this, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Health Minister have so far, just about, kept the main focus of this issue on the health administration and away from their political stewardship.
Mr Harris, especially, gave an extremely assured Dáil performance, fielding a welter of detailed questions with remarkable confidence. The opposition is waiting patiently for evidence that Mr Harris was told something earlier than he has told us and failed to act. It is also testing his version of events to ensure it is accurate and complete.
For now, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman, Stephen Donnelly, was not taking the offensive, but stressed his party will help to restore
public confidence in the smear testing regime. He was, however, testing the Government story.
Labour health spokesman Alan Kelly was characteristically more puckish. He asked Mr Harris whether he could be sure that his version of events will not be overtaken by still more revelations in the coming days.
Sinn Féin, via leader Mary Lou McDonald and health spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly, have chosen to focus on taking a “trophy administrative head”.
Their target is outgoing HSE boss Tony O’Brien, who is retiring in August, and their motivation is that Mr O’Brien headed the cervical screening service in 2007.
The Taoiseach’s defence of Mr O’Brien is grudging but steadfast: “Everyone, even Tony O’Brien, deserves a fair hearing before they are condemned.”
Ms O’Reilly has questioned the basis for the Government’s defence of Mr O’Brien – but the issue has passed for now at least.
Nobody has, as yet, chosen to point a finger of blame at the Health Minister or any of his government colleagues – but all on the opposition benches are clearly waiting.
This issue straddles the watch of four Health Ministers, including Simon Harris. Former Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney (2004-2011) is remembered for establishing CervicalCheck and the controversial link with the US laboratories.
But Ms Harney is long gone from public life. Dr James Reilly served from March 2011 until July 2014, and was followed by one Leo Varadkar, in situ from 2014 until May 2016.
Leo Varadkar spoke yesterday of what he knew about specific difficulties while health minister. He learned of “major patient safety incidents”, such as controversies in Portlaoise, and concerns with bowel screening in the south-east. All those matters are since in the public domain.
“I was never informed of any patient safety concern or potential scandal relating to CervicalCheck and certainly not the outcome of any audit,” he told the Dáil.
But then he kept a little toe in that door. “I have asked officials in the department to check that for me in case my recollection is incorrect,” Mr Varadkar said.
We’ll all keep an eye on that one too.