IT was a strange coincidence. The day Brigid McCole died the British Department of Health posted a letter to the British Haemophiliac Society saying those people infected with hepatitis C by contaminated blood before 1985 would not be compensated.

It was a "no fault" case of contamination, a department spokesman said. No question of negligence. "They got the best care available at the time."

Case closed.

After more than 2 1/2 years an expert group report and hundreds of Dail questions, the Irish hepatitis C scandal is still swamped in what Fianna Fail's Mary Coughlan described as "an ocean of whys".

Next week the Government will announce long awaited details of the tribunal of inquiry, including its terms of reference.

Unlike the expert group chaired by Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien, the tribunal will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and make orders for discovery of documents.

There is speculation that the tribunal will be restricted to the events post 1994, using the Hederman O'Brien report as its starting point.

The Blood Transfusion Services Board (BTSB) is quick to point out that the expert group stressed the "willingness of the BTSB to co operate as fully as possible and give the expert group any information and assistance it might need".

It is also suggested that the tribunal will look only at medical facts and avoid the issue of political culpability.

According to one source, the former chief justice, Mr Justice Thomas Finlay, is tipped to head the tribunal. Last year he oversaw the inquiry into the riot at a soccer match at Lansdowne Road.

The evidence which would have started to emerge this week in the High Court, were it not for Mrs McCole's death, is likely to be sought by the tribunal.

Months of work carried out on her case should mean the tribunal can avoid becoming bogged down in a paper search which, according to the BTSB, occupied five employees working nine hours a day for weeks.

However, a separate discovery of documents may be needed on the infection of women through anti D manufactured from a 1989 donor, as Mrs McCole's case related to a 1976 donor.

According to one legal source this could prove a more serious case of contamination, as so much more was known about hepatitis C at that time.

Mrs McCole's family posed five carefully worded questions to the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, in a letter this week.

Three were based on information revealed in the expert group report.

One related to the BTSB's threat to Mrs McCole that she would be liable for costs if she did not settle.

But the fifth question was based on apparently new evidence alleging that the BTSB manufactured anti D without a manufacturer's licence for 14 years.

Documents, which legally remain the property of the parties to the action, are believed to contain more revelations.

It has been a ground breaking week for the men, women and children infected with hepatitis C. They have received an apology from the BTSB and the hope that some of their questions will be answered.

Positive Action, the group representing women infected by antiD, has got what it has been calling for in the tribunal of inquiry. However, the welcome is cautious until the terms of reference for the inquiry are known.