Ruth Morrissey's High Court case against the HSE and two laboratories has been adjourned until January.

The terminally-ill woman is taking legal action over the alleged misreading of her cervical smear tests.

Counsel for Ms Morrissey told the court they need more time to examine new reports presented by the US laboratories.

Senior Counsel Jeremy Maher was granted an adjournment in the High Court today for his client Ruth Morrissey of Schoolhouse Road in Monaleen, Limerick.

She's suing the HSE and two laboratories over cervical smears taken under the CervicalCheck screening programme in 2009 and 2012.

They say they needed more time to make further enquiries into liability and causation, and that certain issues only became clear in the defendants updated reports that were presented earlier this month.

The defence claims the cancer Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with in 2014 is not the same as previous smear results.

The HSE made no objection to the adjournment.

One of the labs did not object, but said the application had to be made to Mr Justice Kevin Cross who had an in-depth knowledge of the case,

The second lab questioned the merit of the application and raised the issue of prejudice, saying the case had garnered a lot of publicity and wanted a conclusion at the earliest availability.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross adjourned the case with the hearing scheduled for the 29th of January.