Varadkar hits out at ‘absence of care’ for women

The Taoiseach has hit out at the “absence of any concern or care” from CervicalCheck to women kept in the dark over smear screening audits.

Leo Varadkar said it was clear from memos sent in 2016 that there was little regard for the 209 women diagnosed with cancer who were not told their audited smear checks revealed false negatives.

It comes as the Department of Health published another tranche of documents, including memos between the Department of Health and HSE at an official level, minutes of meetings of officials of the HSE and Department of Health, and emails between various officials.