The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will today be called upon by the director of the Cork blood bank to establish urgently an inquiry into the handling of several Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) issues.
Dr Joan Power, regional director of the IBTS, has sent a report to the Taoiseach's offices at Government Buildings setting out why she believes there should be an investigation into, among other things, the long delay in providing a new building for the Cork blood centre. The report is expected to arrive on Mr Ahern's desk today.
A new building for Cork was recommended seven years ago by the Finlay tribunal which investigated the infection of up to 2,000 Irish women with hepatitis C from a contaminated blood product, and funding for it was promised by Mr Cowen when he was minister for health. It has still not been built.
Dr Power, widely credited with exposing the hepatitis C scandal, also wants the manner in which the IBTS proposed to withdraw blood testing from the Cork centre to be examined. In addition, she wants any inquiry to focus on what she sees as a dismantling of the infrastructure of the Cork centre. Her report is also to be sent to the Minister for Health, Ms Harney.
Dr Power, in an interview two years ago, said she felt she was being targeted by the Department because of her role as "whistle-blower" in the hepatitis C scandal.
She said that after she told the Finlay tribunal that she had made a mistake in not immediately informing 28 donors of tests indicating they had hepatitis C, "an official of the Department of Health told a senior colleague of mine that they had me on this issue . . . I was clearly told I would be buried on this issue".
The Department rejected her assertion.