The Health Minister says the HSE inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar will proceed without the co-operation of her husband.
James Reilly says it is regrettable that Praveen Halappanavar has decided not to engage with the investigation at this stage.
The Chairperson of the inquiry team will soon announce the 3 new members of the panel one of whom will be from the United Kingdom.
Minister Reilly says he has requested an interim report into the circumstances of the death of the 31-year-old before Christmas.
He says he respects the right of Praveen Halappanavar not to meet chairman Professor Alkumaran but Minister Reilly hopes he reconsiders.
"I am quite happy that we can investigate this situation currently, and we"ve commenced that" he said.
"There may come a point where obviously we won"t have the completeness of information without Mr. Halappanavar"s input - and to me that"d be regrettable".
"But I want to get the investigation to that point at least before we have any further public discourse on this" he added.
Mr. Halappanavar earlier rebuffed a plea from the Taoiseach for him to sit down and meet the chairman of the inquiry into the death of his wife.
Enda Kenny appealed publicly to the widower Savita Halappanavar during leaders questions today.
Rejected calls to meet the inquiry chairman
However speaking on a special edition of Prime Time to be broadcast on RTÉ 1 at 9.30pm tonight Praveen repeated his demand for a full public inquiry saying he had no confidence in the HSE.
And he told the programme he will not meet the inquiry chairman.
"With due respect to the head of the inquiry and the Taoiseach, we won"t partake (in) the inquiry by the HSE" he said.
"We want a public inquiry".
When asked will he meet the head of the inquiry Mr. Halappanavar replied "No".
"Answers needed quickly"
But the Taoiseach had said a full public inquiry will not deliver the answers quickly.
"It would be very helpful if the legal firm would say to Praveen Halappanavar (to) sit down with this eminent chairman, discuss this matter with him, find out what happened here" he said.
"I"ve no point in going down a long road, with all of the legal complications that come from that with no answer".
"We need an answer" he added.
Mr. Kenny has described the chairman of the inquiry Professor Alkumaran as a man of eminence and integrity.
This is despite concerns from Independent Senator Ronan Mullen that he is an advocate of abortion having published pro-abortion views in a 2009 academic paper.
