A "solemn pledge" has been given by the leaders of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats that they will open the files on the Brigid McCole case if they are returned to Government.
Mr Bertie Ahern and Ms Mary Harney said recent revelations by the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, that he kept the Cabinet informed of the manner in which the court case was being conducted were "quite shocking".
Mr Noonan, in a statement, said there were no inconsistencies or contradictions in what he has previously stated in relation to the medical assessment carried out on Mrs McCole.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, said yesterday he was sorry that a court case was becoming an election matter. He believed there was a difficulty in suggesting that the Government would release the documents relating to the case.
"The documents prepared for a court case are not subject to political rules," said Mr Bruton speaking in Cashel where he was canvassing.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, also in Cashel, said it would be prejudicial to the State to publish the documents. He said that Fianna Fail and the PDs were engaged in "populism in the extreme".
If they entered Government and wanted to release the papers related to the case, said Mr Spring, "they will be advised very strongly that they should not do so in the interests of the State. This is one case where we cannot do the popular thing".
Yesterday, Mr Liam Dunbar, the chief executive officer of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, confirmed that a second medical assessment had been carried out on Mrs McCole on September 19th, 1996. He said that Dr Padraic Mac Mathuna, the consultant gastroenterologist who carried it out, had been told it was on behalf of the three defendants. However, Mr Dunbar said that by the time Dr Mac Mathuna's report was received by McCann FitzGerald, solicitors for the BTSB, Mrs McCole had agreed to settle her case on the day before her death.
"McCann FitzGerald were responsible for collecting all the reports and they would have sent on the copies, but at that stage there was no need to send it to anybody".
Dr Mac Mathuna told The Irish Times he believed he was carrying out the assessment on behalf of the State.
In his statement yesterday, Mr Noonan said the State parties did not receive any medical report of the September 19th assessment. He said it was carried out at the request of BTSB solicitors, McCann FitzGerald, at the time that the BTSB admitted liability in the case.
Mr Noonan said the State parties were informed afterwards by a letter from McCann FitzGerald to Ivor Fitzpatrick Solicitors (representing Mrs McCole) on September 26th, 1996. A copy of this letter was sent to the Chief State Solicitor's office.
The letter, which involved several other issues, also referred to the assessment. Mr Noonan said that in April 1996 Mrs McCole was medically assessed by Prof Donald Weir when her legal team requested an early hearing of her case.
This was also arranged by McCann FitzGerald, who agreed to share the medical report with the State and the National Drugs Advisory Board. Mr Noonan said in his statement that this was "quite normal legal practice".
He said it would have been "completely unnecessary" to insist that Mrs McCole be medically examined separately for all three defendants.
This information about the report of the medical assessment being shared had been a matter of public record since the hearing in the High Court, he said.
When asked about the second assessment, Mr Dunbar of the BTSB said it was carried out in the weeks before Mrs McCole's death. He said that it was routine in such cases that two medical opinions would be sought.
But Mr Dunbar said he did not know why a second opinion had not been sought at the same time as the first assessment, when Mrs McCole was seeking an early hearing of her High Court case last April.
During her application for an early hearing, the court was told that her own consultant, Dr Gary Courtney, believed her condition could develop into decompensated liver disease within months. Prof Weir's report said this was not likely within the next year or so.
Dr Mac Mathuna was asked to carry out his assessment in September, when Mrs McCole was transferred to St Vincent's Hospital for a liver transplant. This operation was never carried out because her condition deteriorated so rapidly.
Dr Courtney told The Irish Times yesterday that he could not understand why a second medical opinion was not sought in April.
"It is not at all unusual to have a divergence of medical opinion. But what is unusual is for three separate defendants to accept just one assessment."