Just 10 women have taken claims through Cervical Check Tribunal

By contrast, some 336 others have taken their actions to the High Court

Aontú Leader of Peadar Tóibín says that the figures confirm that the 'tribunal has failed'.

Just ten women have chosen to pursue claims through the Cervical Check Tribunal, with 336 others pursuing the Government through the High Court.

Since 2018, 336 claims have been received regarding the alleged misreading of smear tests. A further 4 claims were received prior to 2018.

The number of claims has risen steadily year on year, with 103 new claims made in 2021.

The CervicalCheck Tribunal was established by the Government on October 27, 2020. The deadline for claims through the tribunal is January 26, though the health minister can extend this to July.

The statistics were released to the Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín and the Aontú leader says that the figures confirm that the "tribunal has failed".

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Tóibín said: "We know that since the establishment of the Cervical Check Tribunal, it has received a mere ten claims. We also know that last year some 103 claims were made regarding the alleged misreading of smear tests to the State Claims Agency, outside of the tribunal process."

Mr Tóibín continued, "The minister needs to accept that he was wrong to ignore the concerns of the 221 plus group when establishing this tribunal. Clearly women still feel their only viable option is to take the legal route. This is something then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar assured would not happen."

The State is still fighting women in the courts. Incredibly there is still an attitude of denial among arms of the State.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said acknowledged that the number of claims received "is lower than had been anticipated". 

"However, the tribunal has advised that a significant portion of the claims it has received have now been resolved," they said. 

"The tribunal only received its first claims in March 2021 and the early resolution of the claims received demonstrates that the tribunal can bring claims to resolution in months, rather than the years that many claims have been pending before the Courts. The tribunal has been set up to progress an increased number of claims within these same strict timeframes.” 

Campaigners walked away from protracted talks with the Health Minister on the CervicalCheck tribunal in November 2020, claiming it has been a "pointless waste of time" as they have not been listened to.

Campaigners, including Vicky Phelan, Stephen Teap and Lorraine Walsh had all expressed concerns around a number of elements of the tribunal and had called for it to be non-adversarial.