CervicalCheck: Leo Varadkar offers state apology to 1,000 women

Mr Varadkar apologised to those whose lives were "shattered and destroyed"

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has apologised for the "humiliation, the disrespect and deceit" shown by the Irish state to more than 1,000 women in the cervical cancer scandal.

Mr Varadkar said that while a state apology may not provide closure, "I hope it will help to heal".

He offered his apologies to both the women and their families.

It follows state failures in its cervical cancer screening programme, CervicalCheck.

Limerick woman Vicky Phelan, who has terminal cancer, was among the campaigners in the visitors' area of the Dáil (Irish parliament) on Tuesday to hear the taoiseach's apology.

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Last year, she was awarded €2.5m (£2.15m) in a High Court settlement against a US laboratory over a false negative smear test in 2011.

CervicalCheck failed to tell women that their original slides had been reviewed and that some women may have benefited from earlier care.

Emma Mhic Mhathúna campaigned vigorously for all those affected in the cervical cancer scandal

Since the issue was made public, a number of those women have died, including prominent campaigner, Emma Mhic Mhathúna.

The 35-year-old County Kerry woman died a year ago.

She had settled a court action against the Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) and US laboratory Quest Diagnostics for €7.5m (£6.5m) after she received two incorrect smear test results in 2016.

The taoiseach told the Irish Parliament on Tuesday: "We say sorry to those whose lives were shattered, those whose lives were destroyed and those whose lives could have been different."

Speaking on RTÉ radio, the Northern Ireland author of two reports into the controversy has described the state apology as "a momentous step and quite unprecedented".

The Irish government ordered a review of the national cervical screening programme in May 2018

Dr Gabriel Scally said there was a "complete failure from top to bottom" in the cervical screening programme and that some of the women and their relatives had been treated "appallingly badly".

In the Dáil, Mr Varadkar said what had happened to the those affected should not have happened.

"It was a failure of our health service, state, its agencies, systems and culture. We've found out the truth and the facts," he said.

"We're making changes to put things right. We need to restore trust and repair relationships.

"We vow to make sure it never happens again."

Opposition politicians supported the state apology and welcomed the campaigners to the Dáil.

A team in Great Britain is preparing a separate report on the controversy.