The Taoiseach has reiterated that the Government still wants all misread cervical cancer legal cases settled by mediation so women can avoid trials.
Speaking at a launch at Government Buildings, Leo Varadkar said he was not in hiding but was limited in what he can say because of ongoing litigation.
It comes after Vicky Phelan, the woman who first brought the CervicalCheck controversy to light, said she will be asking Mr Varadkar to make good his commitments to the women affected, when she meets him on Wednesday.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Miriam, Ms Phelan said she was angry and shocked that another terminally-ill woman was being dragged through the courts as a result of the crisis.
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In May the Cabinet agreed a mediation process to ensure that the women and their families involved in ten outstanding legal cases connected to the controversy are settled without going to court.
Mr Varadkar said that in the event of a medical lab not being willing to take part in mediation, the State would settle with the woman involved and pursue costs from the lab later.
Ms Phelan said Mr Varadkar needs to take back control from the labs that are currently being sued for damages.
She said there are another "forty-something cases" due to come to court and the Taoiseach must make good on his commitment to the people of this country.
She said that if he did not then he should not be "in the position he's in".
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Govt still wants all misread CervicalCheck cases settled by mediation - Taoiseach https://t.co/dJv8GYgDbr pic.twitter.com/h2sOOLneNv
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 30, 2018
Ms Phelan said she would be specifically mentioning the case of Ruth Morrissey.
Ms Morrissey is suing the Health Service Executive and two laboratories over two cervical smears taken under the CervicalCheck screening programme in 2009 and 2012.
In April, Ms Phelan, the mother of two young children, was awarded €2.5m in a settlement against the US lab that carried out the test over a false negative result in 2011.
She was only informed of the misread test last year, and her case came to light in an audit after she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014.
In May as part of a packet of measures announced by the Government, Minister for Health Simon Harris said a discretionary medical card would be provided to the surviving members of the group of 209 women, as well as an exemption from prescription charges.
He also said the cost of "experimental drugs" would be met, as well as other out-of-pocket expenses such as travel and childcare costs.
Today, Mr Varadkar said he was sorry Ms Morrissey had cancer, it was not picked up sooner and she was not informed of the audit.
He said mediation was tried in her case and was not successful and he said he spoke to the Attorney General on Friday to ask that the State Claims Agency restart mediation.
He said that while the State had admitted liability in her case, it was complicated because negligence had not yet been established on the misreading.
He said false negatives were not necessarily negligent and there was a difficulty distinguishing this, and he said that could not be accepted and would not be.
When asked if he had made a false or empty promise two months ago, Mr said he should have been clearer and that everyone had the right to go to court.
Earlier, the Labour Party said the Taoiseach and the Government are in hiding when it comes to the CervicalCheck controversy.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the party's Health Spokesperson Alan Kelly said the Taoiseach needed to "man-up" and honour his promises.
Mr Kelly said last week Ruth Morrissey had to go into court and face 17 defence lawyers.
He said there was no offer made to Ms Morrissey during the small amount of time that was given for mediation.
Mr Kelly said the situation was "disgraceful" and "unforgivable", and what the Government had promised was not what had transpired.
He said the Government had over-promised and had not delivered.
Mr Kelly said if the situation continues the Taoiseach will have misled the women involved, their families and the public.
He said Mr Varadkar needed to explain how he is going to ensure that the State Claims Agency are going to mediate and the labs can be pursued afterwards.
He said the Taoiseach needs to apologise to the nation if he made a false commitment.
Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly said that what is clear for many of the women, is that a very important promise was made by the Taoiseach and it has been broken.
He said that on 11 May the Taoiseach announced a package of supports such that none of the women would have to go to court.
Mr Donnelly said that Emma Mhic Mhathúna was in court at least four times and Ms Morrissey was in court last week.
He called for absolute clarity from the Taoiseach as to what is going to happen.
