The first public hearing in over a year of the inquiry into vaccine trials at children's homes in the State takes place this morning.
The Vaccine Trials Inquiry, which is investigating three trials which took place between 1960 and 1973, will today hear applications for legal representation.
It is being undertaken by an investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, led by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy.
In its opening statement in January 2002, the inquiry team explained how the inquiry came to be established. It said that three vaccine trials conducted in the 1960s and 1970s had been the subject of media interest since the early 1990s. Of particular concern, it said, was the fact that some of the children who participated in the trials were resident in children's homes or orphanages at the time, and questions had been raised about the ethical propriety of the trials.
The committee will inquire separately into each of the three trials. The first was a trial of a four-in-one vaccine for DTP (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) and polio and involved 58 infants resident in five children's homes in 1960 and 1961.
The second trial, of the rubella vaccine, was conducted in two strands in 1970 among 69 children in a Dublin orphanage and 23 children living in the midlands.
The third trial in 1973 was among 53 children in "Mother and Baby" homes and children's homes in Dublin and 65 children living at home in Dublin. They were given Trivax vaccine, again for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. Today's hearing will relate to the first trial.