Politicians must also take the blame for the smear test debacle

It is almost a year since Vicky Phelan stood outside the High Court and revealed that she would receive €2.5 million in compensation from a laboratory that she alleged had misread her cervical smear test.

Phelan’s story triggered a cascade of revelations and a number of resignations, and threw this government into a major political crisis.

There was a public furore over the health service’s failure to tell patients the truth about the ...