Vicky Phelan and Stephen Teap call for health officials to step down

Thirty five of the country’s top health officials need to be removed from their posts while an inquiry takes place into the smear tests scandal, terminally ill mother Vicky Phelan has said.

Ms Phelan and the widower of Irene Teap demanded the move last night as Department of Health chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan insisted that the failure to tell women about concerns over test results in 2016 was “fair and reasonable” before a crunch Dáil session this morning.

Speaking during a specially arranged Public Accounts Committee meeting, Limerick mother Ms Phelan and Cork father Stephen Teap insisted people need to be removed “in the same way as [ex-HSE director general] Tony O’Brien”.