REPORTS ON the cancer misdiagnosis cases in Portlaoise hospital will be published "as quickly as possible", Tánaiste Brian Cowen told the Dáil.
"A legal problem has arisen in regard to one of the reports, while another will come before the board of the Health Service Executive on Thursday," he said.
"I see no reason why it could not be published, following consideration by the board."
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that last autumn, the country was scandalised by the problems experienced by a group of women and the sad case of these women walking into a clinic on a Saturday morning to find out if they had cancer.
"Now that the issue has disappeared from the headlines, it has been forgotten about. The report which was supposed to be produced by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, has not materialised.
"It was promised for November but was not delivered. It was then promised for the end of February and it is clear it will not be delivered by then either. When I ask the Tánaiste about the report, the only response he can give is to read a prepared statement."
Mr Gilmore added that the women in question were entitled to a response, adding that it was clear the Government was not giving the matter the priority it deserved.
The Tánaiste said Ms Harney had asked the chief executive of the HSE to request a report on the circumstances that led to the suspension of breast radiology services at the hospital, to place a consultant radiologist on administrative leave and to initiate a clinical review of breast radiology services.
"That report, which was carried out by a review group led by Ann Doherty of the National Hospitals Office, has been completed and submitted to the chief executive officer of the HSE and the Department of Health and Children," said Mr Cowen.
"The Minister has also asked for a report from the board of the HSE on the management of all events starting from and subsequent to those decisions. That report, which was produced by John Fitzgerald, has been completed and will be examined by the board at a meeting on Thursday of this week."
Mr Cowen said that coming from the Laois-Offaly constituency, and knowing some of the people involved, he agreed, as did other deputies in the constituency, it was important that the reports were brought into the public domain as quickly as possible to find out what happened, how it happened and as an exercise in accountability, and to make sure it did not happen again.
"We should also make sure that the best possible clinical support is available for the purposes of seeing how the treatment can be progressed and dealt with, hopefully, successfully," he added.
