The Supreme Court has been asked to urgently hear an appeal against a key High Court judgment in the case of Ruth Morrissey.

The HSE and two laboratories told the court today that the judgment has far-reaching consequences for the Cervical Check tribunal and other litigation.

The judgment was given in the case of Ms Morrissey, who is terminally ill with cervical cancer, and her husband Paul, from Limerick.

The concerns of the HSE and two labs centre on the High Court finding that screeners should have "absolute confidence" about the adequacy of a slide sample – and that a test result has no abnormalities before passing it as clear.

They told the court that this introduces a standard in the relevant legal test for negligence that is incompatible with cervical cancer screening.