Why was there no warning of this crisis?

SOME ministersfacingpublic fury over the cervical smear scandalbelieve they are being blamed for what may have been a communicationsbreakdown with the office of the Attorney General.

The AG , in case you’ ve forgotten , is the legal adviser to the Taoiseach a nd the Government.

Sources say there was a procedure in place where the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalitionministers would be alerted t o potential legal problems – and that would include cervical screening.

Sources say it is hard to understand why the Department of Health , which had received a HSE memo in 2016,( when LeoVaradkar was healthminister ), did not inform the minister or the AG of that memo when it contained a reference to the advice of lawyers being sought.

The early warningsystem was introduced to prevent ministers being ambushed or surprised by a legal difficulty that could become a politicalproblem.

And the early warning protocol was in place before the problems from the cervical sm ear tests arose.

If ministers ’ protestations that they knew nothing about the looming scandal are to be believed , it could point to a breakdown in communications with their legal adviser.