Emma Mhic Mhathúna's solicitor: State has not yet fully investigated why CervicalCheck errors happened
The solicitor who worked closely with the late Emma Mhic Mhathúna has asked why the state has not yet fully investigated why the CervicalCheck errors happened.
21 women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal have now died with Emma Mhic Mhathúna, a public face of the crisis, the latest.
In paying tribute this morning her solicitor, Cian O'Carroll, said the pressure for a world-class screening service to be the legacy for all the women must now increase.
Mr O'Carroll described Ms Mhic Mhathuna as a "strong, intelligent and funny woman" and revealed that there was a reason for her wearing the red dress on the day she made her settlement at the courts.
He said: "She thought things through, she worked it out and there was a reason why she wore the red dress.
"It was because she wasn't going to be seen as a victim and she looked remarkable that day walking through the Four Courts."
Mr O'Carroll told the "Today with Sean O'Rourke" show on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning that Emma was adamant all the way through that she wanted accountability.
He said that the National Screening Service has a primary obligation to send in HIQA to investigate why those errors happened, but he revealed: "they haven't done it".
"You would think that the State would have had those slides and those errors investigated. They haven't, they've never been investigated.
"In fact, none of the 221 errors have ever been investigated, even though the contracts with the laboratory specifically and clearly provides that if the State wants, it can send HIQA into that laboratory and find out why the error happened and has anything been done to fix the problem that caused it in the first place.
"Non-disclosure did not kill that woman, failures in a laboratory in 2010 and 2103 did.
"It is inexcusable that today following her death there is still not a clear and determined statement from the State saying that we will investigate why those slides and so many hundreds of others were critically misread in those laboratories in the US and in Ireland."
Mr O'Carroll revealed that his last communication with Ms Mhic Mhathuna was last Thursday through text. He spoke of how it was clear that she did not have long to live, but it wasn't clear that it would happen so immediately.
Mr O'Connor recalled ms Mhic Mhathúna asking about wheelchair access in the Four Courts. He told her not to worry, that she would be out of the wheelchair by the next time she was due at the Four Courts to which she replied: "It's not for my wheelchair, it's for my rollerskates".
He paid tribute to her determination to get things done.
Mr O'Carroll said: "She saw that things were wrong and didn't have to be the way they were, and that changed the way I look on things.
"She challenged us who were working for us constantly... it meant that we were ultimately able to do a much better job for her."
Meanwhile, RTE News are reporting that the two main laboratories who examine more than 260,000 smear tests a year have not yet agreed to sign new contracts with the HSE.
The contracts are due to expire this month and it is understood a key issue in relation to agreeing new contracts is the laboratories securing new insurance to cover the backlog of CervicalCheck tests to be done given the controversy around CervicalCheck legal claims and settlements.
