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A decision by the under-pressure chief of the Health Service Executive (HSE) to leave his post a month early has not dampened calls for his immediate resignation.<\/p>\nA decision by the under-pressure chief of the Health Service Executive (HSE) to leave his post a month early has not dampened calls for his immediate resignation.<\/p>\n
The Government has confirmed that HSE director Tony O\u2019Brien is to retire at the start of July, four weeks earlier than scheduled, as a result of taking unused holiday entitlement.<\/p>\n
The move appears to have done little to ease the pressure on Mr O\u2019Brien over a controversy about wrongly interpreted cervical cancer smear tests.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il TD John McGuinness has indicated his party will support an anticipated motion of no confidence in Mr O\u2019Brien in the D\u00e1il next week.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in is tabling a motion calling for the director general to quit, with party president Mary Lou McDonald insisting the \u201cwriting is on the wall\u201d for the HSE chief.<\/p>\n
I do not believe he should have the opportunity to dictate the time of his departure<\/p>\n
The Government has resisted calls to sack Mr O\u2019Brien, saying it was better he stay in post to help find out what went wrong.<\/p>\n
Last week it was revealed that an audit by CervicalCheck \u2013 the national screening program \u2013 of 1,482 women diagnosed with cervical cancer since 2008 had found potential errors in 208 cases, as tests showed no abnormality when they should have been given a cancer warning.<\/p>\n
The majority of the 208 women \u2013 162 \u2013 were not initially told of the outcome of the audit. Of the 208, 17 have since died.<\/p>\n
It then emerged that a further 1,518 women with the cancer in the same period have not been audited, though health chiefs stress the number affected by potential errors in this group is likely to be lower.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien told an Oireachtas committee last week that he would not resign but instead devote his remaining time until the end of his contract to addressing the \u201cfailures\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he would accept some responsibility for the issue, but not \u201cfull responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n
The director-general is taking temporary leave of absence from the board of a US company he joined earlier this year to focus on the fall-out from the smear test furore.<\/p>\n
Mr McGuinness said he should resign from the HSE with \u201cimmediate effect\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not believe he should have the opportunity to dictate the time of his departure,\u201d he told RTE Radio One\u2019s This Week.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that would send a very clear signal to the country, in this case to the women and their families, that the political system is bent on holding these individuals to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI believe we have reached the point now where we either put down a motion or an amendment to the motion that\u2019s before the Dail and that we take immediate action, decisive action to restore some confidence in the political system that we can hold individuals to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien availing of his holiday leave is hardly an adequate or appropriate response to the debacle<\/p>\n
Mrs McDonald told the same program: \u201cI think Mr O\u2019Brien availing of his holiday leave is hardly an adequate or appropriate response to the debacle and the scandal and the disaster that has now visited women and their families across this land. This is about a calling to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sinn F\u00e9in TD added: \u201cIf we are not willing, if the Government is not willing to hold the director general to account when something goes catastrophically wrong in the HSE, well, all of the talk about reform and change is only that, only talk \u2013 it won\u2019t amount to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy was triggered by the case of Vicky Phelan, the terminally ill mother whose legal battle cast light on the issue.<\/p>\n
Last month Ms Phelan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Co Limerick, settled a High Court action for \u20ac2.5m after being incorrectly told in 2011 that her smear test had given a negative result for cancer.<\/p>\n
In 2014 she was diagnosed with cancer but only told of the false negative last September.<\/p>\n
An independent review of the screening program has already been launched while the clinical director of CervicalCheck stepped down last weekend.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged a redress scheme for women negatively impacted by the failings.<\/p>\n