The Republic's Health Service Executive Director General Tony O’Brien is to step down from the organisation today over the CervicalCheck controversy.
He had previously said he would not step down until his contracted ended later this year.
The announcement came after he met with the Republic’s health minister Simon Harris yesterday evening.
In a statement, Mr Harris said: “I would like to express my thanks to Tony O’Brien for his many years of dedicated public service.
“I know that he is standing down from his role today because he believes it is in the best interest of rebuilding public confidence in the wake of the issues which have arisen in CervicalCheck.”
The announcement came as it emerged that an internal briefing note that flagged potential errors in cervical screening tests two years ago stressed the need for a media strategy to respond to stories of women whose cancer diagnosis was missed.
The memo to HSE bosses from Ireland's National Screening Service (NSS) also advised a "pause" in the process of communicating to clinicians the findings of an audit of smear test results belonging to women who were subsequently diagnosed with cancer.
A further note, circulated four months later, acknowledged that while the "majority of cancers were detected as early as possible through cervical screening, not all cancers were prevented".
The HSE forwarded three 2016 memos to the Oireachtas's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday as members probed the deepening controversy around misinterpreted smear tests.
Acting chair of the PAC, Labour's Alan Kelly, branded the documents "devastating".
Last week, it was revealed that an audit by CervicalCheck - the national screening programme for cervical cancer - of 1,482 women diagnosed with the cancer since 2008 had found potential errors in 208 cases, as tests showed no abnormality when they should have been given a cancer warning.
The majority of the 208 women - 162 - were not initially told of the outcome of the audit. Of the 208, 17 have since died.
Mr Kelly said the HSE appeared more interested in protecting its reputation than communicating with patients.
"This was a strategy to ensure the HSE, the corporate brand, is being protected," he said.
"This is a devastating document because of the tone and manner in which it is written and also where it focuses on from a communications point of view."
The controversy was triggered by the case of Vicky Phelan, the terminally ill mother whose legal battle cast light on the issue.
Last month, Ms Phelan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Co Limerick, settled a High Court action for 2.5 (euro) million after being incorrectly told in 2011 that her smear test had given a negative result for cancer.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with cancer but only told of the false negative last September.
