The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan. declined to appear on last night's Questions and Answers programme on RTÉ television because he did not wish to address the issue of his handling of the hepatitis C controversy again.
A Fine Gael spokesman confirmed yesterday that an invitation had been extended by the programme to Mr Noonan but he had declined it.
He had been informed that the No Tears programme, a drama series about the women who were infected with hepatitis C through contaminated anti-D, was one of the topics due for discussion.
The final episode of the series was broadcast last night. It was the story of two fictional women, but was based on real events.
"He has already dealt with the issue on RTÉ on nine separate occasions," the spokesman said.
Ms Deirdre Younge, editor of Questions and Answers told The Irish Times that when they were considering panellists last week they were aware that this programme would be one of the subjects.
"We asked the Fine Gael press office if Michael Noonan would be interested in doing it. We put forward his name, but not exclusively. It could have been someone else from Fine Gael.
"But they didn't feel they wanted to participate. We are not a battering ram for good or evil for RTÉ. If something is of topical merit we will take it on board."
Ms Younge said she could understand the reasons Mr Noonan might not have wished to appear on the programme.
Last night's panel was the Fianna Fáil Minister of State, Mr Willie O'Dea; Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus; journalist John Waters; Dr Caroline Fennell, a law lecturer in University College Cork; and the writer/director Mr Gerry Stembridge.
Meanwhile an RTÉ spokeswoman for No Tears said yesterday they were very pleased with the television ratings for the programme.
In its first week it had 601,500 viewers, 41.2 per cent of the people watching television at that time and a rating of 16.9 Television Viewer Ratings.
Last week it had 636,500 viewers, 44.3 per cent of the people watching television and 17.9 TVRs.
By comparison, Questions and Answers, which is broadcast straight after No Tears, had 316,500 viewers last week, a 30.5 per cent share of the people watching television at that time and 8.9 per cent TVRs.