Mr Justice Meenan to investigate alternatives to court for CervicalCheck women

Mr Justice Charles Meenan

Following a meeting with Vicky Phelan yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government wanted cases arising from the CervicalCheck audit to be resolved without women having to appear in court.

He said: “Notwithstanding that parties always retain the right to go to Court, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms must be found which avoid causing unnecessary distress for the women and their loved ones.”

Mr Varadkar also expanded on his earlier comments about mediation by saying the Government and the State Claims Agency (SCA) were still committed to using mediation where possible.

However, the Government now believes that mediation involving multiple parties and disputed facts has presented “real difficulties in achieving successful resolution in some cases”.

Mr Justice Meenan has been asked to make recommendations on how the current situation can be dealt with.

In doing so, the judge has been asked to:

1. ​Engage with the women, their families and their representatives to assess what, in their opinion, could be done to provide an alternative to court.
2. ​Assess the management of cases, liability and quantum that arise, in conjunction with the State Claims Agency and other relevant bodies (State parties, laboratories, insurers, indemnifiers and affected parties).
3. ​Have regard to the work of Dr. Gabriel Scally’s Scoping Inquiry and the International Clinical Expert Panel Review led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,and the British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.
4. ​Report to the Minister for Health within two months. The report to recommend a way through which these cases can be resolved, in a sensitive and timely manner, that is appropriate to these cases involving complex liability issues and multiple parties, outside of adversarial court processes.

The Government intends to act on Mr Justice Meenan’s recommendations “as soon as they are available”.