A District Court judge has lifted an order preventing the naming of two former officials of the Blood Transfusion Service Board who have been charged with causing hepatitis C infection.
Judge Geoffrey Browne was told yesterday at Dún Laoghaire District Court that neither the prosecution nor the defence had wanted the reporting restriction.
The submissions followed an application by RTÉ and Independent Newspapers for the ban to be lifted.
Dr Terry Walsh, Holly Park Avenue, Foxrock, and Ms Cecily Cunningham, Hollybank Road, Clontarf, were charged last July with "unlawfully and maliciously" causing a noxious substance, namely infected anti-D, to be taken by seven women, thereby inflicting grievous bodily harm contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act.
At a subsequent hearing last month, Judge Browne banned publication of the defendants' names, having referred to a previous request for anonymity.
Yesterday, however, the chief prosecution solicitor, Ms Noreen Landers, told the court the ban was the result of a misunderstanding. All the DPP had wanted at the previous hearing was an order preventing the reporting of testimony given that day, she said.
The judge said if no one was arguing for anonymity it was not up to him to impose it.
The defendants have been sent forward for trial to the next sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court on their own bail bonds of €250.
The infections, which were subject of the Finlay tribunal of inquiry in 1997, are alleged to have taken place between 1977 and 1992 at hospitals in Limerick, Cork, Laois, Galway and Dublin.
Of the seven women referred to in the case, four were infected in 1977, one in 1991 and two in 1992.
At a previous hearing counsel for the defendants had asked why there had been a delay of up to 26 years in bringing the case to court.
Last July the DPP had sought for the case to be returned for trial on indictment. But Judge Browne instead adjourned it for two months to give the codefendants time to review the matters before the court.
Dr Walsh and Ms Cunningham are the first two people to be charged with offences arising from the hepatitis-C blood infection saga. Up to 1,600 women were infected with the virus through the receipt of contaminated anti-D which had been manufactured by the BTSB.