As another hospital confirmed yesterday it supplied pituitary glands to the pharmaceutical industry, the Department of Health announced it was setting up a helpline for those affected by the controversy. The glands were removed during post-mortem examinations of patients in the 1970s and 1980s.
The James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin, became the 20th hospital to make such an admission in the past week.
It said it supplied the glands to KabiVitrum, now known as Pharmacia Ireland, and was given "an administrative contribution of £1.50" by the pharmaceutical company for doing so.
The helpline will operate from 9 a.m. on Monday. It can be contacted at 1800 45 45 00.
A number of other hospitals said yesterday checks otheir records revealed nothing to suggest they had supplied pituitary glands - used up to the mid-1980s for the manufacture of human growth hormone to treat people of small stature - to pharmaceutical companies. They include Tallaght, the Rotunda and Naas General hospitals.
Statements from St James's and St Vincent's hospitals are not expected until next week.
To date only two of up to six pharmaceutical companies believed to have been supplied with glands by at least 32 Irish hospitals have issued statements confirming their involvement. These are Pharmacia Ireland and Novo Nordisk.
A US spokesman for the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, said Pharmacia was its only subsidiary to have been involved. This rules out Upjohn Ltd. And a spokesman for Novartis in Switzerland, which subsumed Ciba-Geigy, told The Irish Times: "Based on an internal review, we have found no evidence that our predecessor companies procured or used human organs for manufacturing or research purposes."
The support group for families affected by organ retention, Parents for Justice, has censured the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, for failing to respond "in any meaningful way" to the revelations that hospitals had been "trafficking" in glands taken without consent and "for profit". It would be his political downfall, they predicted.
They accused him of lacking compassion, of setting up an inquiry into the affair which was toothless (the Dunne inquiry) and missed several deadlines, and of failing to honour a commitment, which they taped him making, to establish a tribunal of inquiry if the Dunne inquiry did not receive voluntary co-operation from all parties.
They said a family in the midlands was about to take a case against the Minister in the High Court for breach of promise.
The group's chairwoman, Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly, said they had sought submissions made by hospitals to the Dunne inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act. The requests were refused and the decision has been appealed to the Information Commissioner.
A ministerial spokeswoman denied the Minister was lacking in compassion, pointing out that he met Parents for Justice many times and set up the Dunne inquiry to get to the bottom of what happened.