DUBLIN — The Irish government announced on Monday that it was opening an official inquiry and setting up phone help lines and emergency testing after it emerged that a publicly funded smear test program had mistakenly cleared at least 208 women who later received diagnoses of cervical cancer.

The 208 women received false negatives between 2010 and 2014. At least 17 of these women have since died, Irish officials said, although they added that they could not confirm the causes of death.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday that he was “very angry” and “saddened” by the case. He said the government would investigate what he described as “appalling communication failures” and examine the testing process.

The government is contacting all affected, including survivors of the 17 deceased women, to inform them of the mistaken tests and of a 2014 review that identified the lapses but did not become public until recently. The government is also considering a plan to automatically compensate those survivors, so that their families do not have to go through the courts.