All 15 of the doctors who oversee the running of CervicalCheck’s colposcopy services for women requiring further investigation following a smear test are considering resigning.

Cervical Check campaigner Vicky Phelan says some people caught up in the scandal have not been able to go public with their experiences because they are in the throes of “nasty” divorces or separations.

There are concerns that women may be facing more delays in getting smear test results under Cervical Check.

The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will issue an apology to the women impacted by the CervicalCheck programme failures in the next Dáil term.

Patient representatives will get an opportunity to question health officials over why 800 women experienced delays in getting their HPV virus test results.

Cabinet Ministers will this morning consider a bill to set up a tribunal for women affected by CervicalCheck.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris have been forced to deny CervicalCheck officials warned them offering free smear test rechecks would severely damage the service — accusing critics of being involved in “revisionism”.

A Fianna Fáil TD has suggested Simon Harris misled the Dáil over the CervicalCheck scandal.

Asked if the Vicky Phelan case never happened, when would Ruth Morrissey have found out about the audit reviews on her smear slides, Cervical Check programmer manager John Gleeson said: "If she had chosen to ask us".

The former CervicalCheck boss forced out at the height of the scandal is set to break her five-month silence next week.

The Government’s cervical cancer tests scandal review will examine serious fears that the State failed to ensure the quality of the labs to which it outsourced services — but may delay its findings until the end of June.

At least 17 of the 208 women affected by the escalating cervical cancer tests scandal have died amid growing fears over the true scale of what happened.

We made terrible mistakes. We never put a system in place to make sure that you were told what you needed to know when you needed it.