WORDS THAT WILL HAUNT LEO...
THE following is the extract of the transcript of Taoiseach Leo Vardakar’s interview with news anchor Keelin Shanley on RTÉ’s Six One news on May 11, at the height of the CervicalCheck crisis. VARADKAR: ‘We’re also going to endeavour to settle any of the outstanding legal cases through mediation so nobody has to go to court unless they choose to do so.’ SHANLEY: ‘How can you say that you can give mediation in all of these cases if we keep indemnity from the US labs? VARADKAR: ‘Well what we propose to do is offer mediation in every case so that women can avoid having going to court, the trauma of a court hearing.’
SHANLEY: ‘But what will you do if the US lab says ‘No, we want to fight it’?’
VARADKAR: ‘What we’ll do in this situation is the State will settle and pursue
the lab later. So essentially the State will be on the side of the plaintiff, on the side of the woman, mediating with her and if we have to pursue the lab later we will. Now that does potentially expose the taxpayer.’
SHANLEY: ‘Does that mean you’re handing back the indemnity, that you’ve been offered, to the labs if they fight it?’
VARADKAR: ‘In the three cases where the State is indemnified. But are other cases where the labs haven’t indemnified the State. But we can’t wait around for the labs to indemnify the State because some of these women are very sick, some of them may not have long to go. So we are taking the step, where we’re going to mediate with the women concerned and allow us to pursue the labs in due course.’