Cabinet briefed over hep C papers

THE Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, gave a preliminary report to the Cabinet yesterday on the Government's commitment to release…

THE Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, gave a preliminary report to the Cabinet yesterday on the Government's commitment to release the papers governing the legal strategy in the McCole case. A Government spokesman said afterwards that the pre-election commitment to release the documents in the hepatitis C case "remains" and the work was proceeding "full steam ahead".

Mr Cowen and the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne, had been working on the papers since last Friday, the spokesman added, and it was intended to disclose the legal strategy to the McCole relatives in the first instance.

Documents from the Chief State Solicitor's Office, the Irish Medicines Board, the Blood Transfusion Services Board and the Department of Health were being studied.

The Government was anxious to honour its commitment as quickly as possible, the spokesmen said.

Geraldine Kennedy

Geraldine Kennedy

Geraldine Kennedy was editor of The Irish Times from 2002 to 2011