Counsel says recommending prosecution `not appropraite'

IT WAS "not appropriate" for the tribunal to recommend prosecutions in the hepatitis C scandal, counsel for the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) said yesterday. Mr Paul Gallagher was making his final submission.

The people [at the BTSB] involved in this very great tragedy" had co-operated fully with the tribunal, he said. They had given "full and frank evidence ... Dr [Terry] Walsh in particular" which had been part of "the healing process" for them and the rest of the employees at the BTSB. There had been "no cover-up.

The BTSB itself had uncovered the tragedy and then brought to public attention "what went wrong, in the knowledge of what that meant for the organisation." He referred to Dr Walsh's "regret" and Dr Emer Lawlor's "profound and deep regret" that both did not pay greater attention to the December 1991 fax from the Middlesex Hospital in London confirming that patient X's plasma was hepatitis C positive.

Dr Joan Power, "whose great work" brought the tragedy to light, had given evidence to the tribunal of Dr Walsh's "terrible shock and distress" at the discovery. He had disclosed the 1991 fax "aware of the very serious implications for himself".

Dr Lawlor had "impressed everybody with the level of her dedication," Mr Gallagher continued. Her work since 1994 was "remarkable, by any standards." For "someone like her not to follow up on a fax like that ... in the unfortunate position of not taking it fully on board ... likewise Dr Walsh ... they regret it so much, and they will have to live with it."

Evidence from Ms Cecily Cunningham indicated that board structures at the time had been faulty, he said. There was "no proper red alert system" in place. There were people who had made wrong decisions and an ethos which did not help.

But the BTSB now "is a wholly different organisation", which he described as "a tribute to the dedication" of the people there. Of the 350 employees "almost all" were not there at the time of the 1976-77 incident. It was "on its knees almost" when Mr Joseph Holloway took over as chairman in 1994. Prof Sean McCann and Mr Liam Dunbar took up posts there "when no one else wanted to" out of "a sense of dedication to its (BTSB's) ideal." As a result the blood supply was safer now than it ever had been in the history of the State.