Vicky Phelan has hit out at politicians who didn’t bother to show up for an historic State apology to cervical cancer victims earlier this week.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar issued a public apology in the Dail on Tuesday to the 221 Irish women who were given the wrong results from CervicalCheck.
Around 150 victims and their families affected by the cancer scandal were in the public gallery to hear Leo say sorry.
But campaigner Vicky, 45, who first lifted the lid on the scandal last April when she settled her High Court case, said all TDs should have been there out of respect.
She urged the constituents of missing TDs to remember their absence when it comes to the polls.
The mother-of-two from Co Limerick, said: “Yesterday was the first day that a lot of these women and their families were out in public, any other meetings we had were in private.
“We all know there were 221 families affected and 150 people were there yesterday.
“The apology was scheduled for something like seven minutes past three, or something very precise like that...but of course, it didn’t start on time because of the whole ‘Buttongate’ thing.
“In fairness to the Taoiseach, once they had voted on that, there was another call for business and he asked could we move on because there were people waiting.
“That really annoyed me, I was sitting there thinking that all of these politicians knew there were women and families sitting in the gallery waiting for this apology and some of them didn’t think it was important enough to start on time, and that’s why I made that comment afterwards after the statement about the number of TDs in the chamber at the time.
“I was very disappointed to see that it wasn’t more full. It was full for Enda Kenny’s apology to the Magdalene women and everybody has a mother, a daughter or a sister and they all should have been there are far as I’m concerned.”
When asked if the empty seats in the chamber bothered her, Vicky said those missing had shown “a lack of respect”.
She added: “How often do we have state apologies? Not that often. These are our elected representatives."
Speaking on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning, she went on: “I would say to the people who weren’t there, to their constituents, remember that when voting and election time comes around, and these people didn’t see fit or see it as important enough to be there...for what, an hour?
"These things are a big deal for people, and more people should have been in the chamber for it.”
Vicky said that the apology itself meant an awful lot to people: “I really do think that it can help a lot of people to move on with their lives.
"It’s not going to change things, it’s not going to bring their loved ones back but I did think the apology was more than what we were expecting.”
