Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris back chief medical officer

The Taoiseach and the Health Minister have expressed full confidence in Tony Holohan as pressure mounts on him to resign.

Dr Holohan, the chief medical officer in the Department of Health was sent three memos in 2016 which revealed CervicalCheck was preparing a media response to possible headlines that would say “screening did not diagnose my cancer”.

However, these emails were not forwarded on to either Leo Varadkar who was Health Minister when the first memo was sent or current Health Minister Simon Harris.