THE Cabinet is expected to discuss this morning whether the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, will appear before a Dail committee to explain the legal strategy adopted by the State in the case of the late Mrs Brigid McCole.
Mr Noonan was coming under increased pressure last night to reveal why such a strategy was taken against the Co Donegal woman, who died last October as a result of receiving infected antiD immunoglobulin in 1977.
Ms Brid McCole, daughter of Mrs McCole, said at the weekend that Mr Noonan should resign because of the Government's refusal to explain why her mother was "threatened" for pursuing a High Court compensation claim.
According to Government sources, Mr Noonan has received a letter asking him to appear before the Select Committee on Social Affairs tomorrow morning from the committee chairman. However, he had not yet decided by last night whether to appear.
Mr Noonan said yesterday that he had "enormous sympathy" for the Co Donegal family. He had listened with "great anguish" to the interview given by Ms McCole on Sunday.
However, the Minister said in Limerick that he believed that "in the run up to a general election Fianna Fail is using the great tragedy of Mrs McCole simply to win votes . . . I think that is a despicable political strategy."
The Fianna Fail spokesman on health, Mr Brian Cowen, reacted angrily to the allegation and said his party had consistently sought information on who authorised the legal strategy and had been doing so for months before the general election became an issue.
Mr Cowen said that as well as the Minister, the Chief State Solicitor and the Attorney General should appear before the Select Committee. Mr Noonan would be able to waive his privilege as a client and allow them to explain the decisions that were taken in the case.
"If Mr Noonan believes he has a defensible position then he should have no problem coming before the committee and waiving his legal privilege."
Mr Noonan also said yesterday that he could do nothing else other than follow legal advice given to him regarding the McCole case.
"I could not admit liability when my legal advice was the State was not liable. If I'd done that, I'd be hauled before the Public Accounts Committee of Dail Eireann and asked why I was paying out taxpayers' money against legal advice.
"But the main thrust of the legal case was between Mrs McCole's legal team and the BTSB legal team and it was between those two that the settlement was arrived at, and part of that settlement was that they would not proceed further against the State," he said.
Last Thursday it was revealed that the Chief State Solicitor and the Attorney General had refused to appear before the Social Affairs Committee to discuss the legal strategy in the case.
Following a request from the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Ahern, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, consulted the Attorney General on the matter. The latter told him that the Chief State Solicitor could not be freed from his legal relationship with the Government.
In a letter to the committee, the Chief State Solicitor, Mr Michael
Buckley, said that to discuss the instructions he had received from his client, the Government, would run counter to the "fundamental norm" of the lawyer client relationship.
In Cork yesterday, the leader of Democratic Left, Mr De Rossa, said nobody had done more than Mr Noonan to help the victims of what was an appalling tragedy.