Lindsay proposals will be acted on - Martin

The Government has accepted the findings of the Lindsay tribunal into the infection with HIV and Hepatitis C of persons with haemophilia, the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, told the Dáil yesterday.

It had been decided to refer it to the Director of Public Prosecutions "as a mark of the seriousness with which it views the events which are documented".

He said the Government was fully committed to implementing the report's recommendations in partnership with the Irish Haemophilia Society "and the other stakeholders". He hoped the implementation of the report would mark a new way forward to allow all concerned to take part in a collaborative and inclusive process.

Lack of support services in the past, particularly counselling, had caused real hardship and suffering. The report acknowledged that much had been done in recent years to improve services for persons with haemophilia - the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders occupied new premises at St James's Hospital and was now a state-of-the-art facility "firmly patient-orientated". Three-monthly meetings were held with the Irish Haemophilia Society to integrate patients' views into clinical practice.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service, in addition, had introduced major new testing programmes "in advance of most other transfusion centres internationally" and continuously monitored international developments, the Minister said.

He envisaged setting up a national co-ordinating committee, as recommended in the report, by the spring of next year. In this regard, "the model adopted in the case of Hepatitis C" had worked effectively. The role of a Product Selection and Monitoring Committee was also pivotal, to ensure the availability of an adequate supply of clotting factor concentrates.

Other recommendations included the creation of a sufficient number of consultant haematologists and the satisfactory maintenance of medical records. Doctors should ensure test results in relation to patients were given to them as soon as they became available. It was also recommended that the ITBS establish protocols to ensure positive test results were communicated to relevant donors as soon as possible.

The Minister had appointed Mr Paul Gardiner, SC, to advise on the actions of multinational pharmaceutical companies whose products "were implicated" in HIV and Hepatitis C infection of persons with haemophilia.

Following consultation with Mr Gardiner, he believed, "it would be possible to mount a useful investigation which would allow access to publicly available material". He was consulting with the AttorneyGeneral on the issue.

Ms Olivia Mitchell, the Fine Gael spokeswoman on health, said "the real travesty of the report" was that while it was set up, at least in part, to act as "truth commission" for the haemophilia community, it was, in fact, a negative experience for them.

"The adversarial nature of the tribunal left them with the sense that they were the defendants rather than the victims." One witness was asked in cross-examination how he spent his compensation money. Another was describing the death of her father when senior counsel asked the chairman "not to over-indulge the witness".

In France, said Ms Liz McManus, the Labour Party spokeswoman on health, people went to jail and a minister was prosecuted through the courts, when the scandal of contaminated blood was discovered.

"In Ireland we set up a tribunal in good faith. Our aim was to bring some closure and some comfort for victims and for the families of victims. It was also to find out "who did what and who was responsible" for the catastrophe.

"Neither aim has been realised. The report does not come to clear conclusions. The report did not apportion responsibility even though profound questions needed answers.

"The outcome is a crime that has many victims and yet no perpetrators. Some 79 people had died but nobody was responsible.

"It says a lot about the strange priorities of this House that the Flood report was given top billing and was debated on the first days of the Dail's re-opening. Yet those who have suffered so much are made to wait until the third week before the Lindsay report is debated."