The State Claims Agency has confirmed it will appeal a €2.1million award for damages made to terminally ill mum Ruth Morrissey.
The cervical cancer campaigner and her husband Paul were awarded the huge sum on May 3 over the misreading of smear tests and the failure to tell her about it.
A State Claims Agency spokesman stressed its appeal to the Supreme Court centred on “a number of important legal points that may have significant implications for the State”.
Health Minister Simon Harris told RTE today he will look to insulate the total award.
He said: “What I would like to see happen is to try and find a mechanism to protect Ms Morrissey’s interest from any appeal that may happen.... She has been vindicated in the High Court in relation to her own case, and no-one should try to take that from her.”
The Morrisseys had sued the HSE and Quest Diagnostics and MedLab Pathology Limited after two of her smear tests, in 2009 and 2012, were misread.
The two laboratories had previously suggested that they would appeal the judgement made in favour of Ruth, 37.
Minister Harris told RTÉ’s The Week In Politics: “I think it was always inevitable that this ruling was going to be appealed and indeed the labs made that very clear very early on.
“In relation to whether the State appeals or not that’s not decided by politicians or the Government or the Oireachtas. The State Claims Agency makes that decision.
“They (politicians) don’t [direct anybody] and legally can’t.”
The Limerick woman was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 after noticing “pink panther” -like blood after sex.
When she went to her GP the cancer had advanced so far that the doctor could see that there was something on her cervix from a basic exam.
Last May she found out that she was one of hundreds women who were not informed that earlier smear tests had been misread.
She said that her misread smear in 2009 would have made “a significant difference” to her health.
