How to investigate why dozens of women received false smear tests and why they were not told about them – and how to conduct that investigation quickly and publicly – are the challenges facing the Government. For Phelan, the motive was to be able to tell other women who may have been treated similarly. Whereas a commission of investigation – the route the Government has chosen following an initial “scoping inquiry” – would be quicker, he suggested, they were generally not public. So this would not be in keeping with the spirit of why Phelan chose to tear down the shutters on CervicalCheck’s policy of closed disclosure. “There seems to be a viewpoint that it possibly can at the discretion of the chair,” he said.

Source: The Irish Times May 10, 2018 00:00 UTC