The Minister has a final chance to prove the Government was genuine in promising an inquiry into the drug firms, writes Joe Humphreys.
Tens of millions of euro have been spent by the State on dealing with the aftermath of the infection of more than 260 haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C.
Yet those most responsible for the tragedy have not paid a penny of the bill.
This startling fact lies at the heart of the Irish Haemophilia Society's desire for a fresh investigation into the role multinational drugs companies in the affair, with a view to holding them accountable.
The companies in question were responsible for all but eight of 105 cases of HIV infection.
Their products, which were supplied to the Blood Transfusion Service Board, also caused the vast majority of the 79 infection-related deaths.
These facts were largely known before the establishment of the €12-million Lindsay tribunal. Yet the tribunal chose not to investigate the companies, nor even to recommend that they be investigated.
Instead, Judge Alison Lindsay said it was a matter for the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
Jumping to her defence last week, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, who as attorney general appointed her chairwoman, expressed scepticism about taking on the drugs companies, noting that every cent spent on tribunals or court cases was money not spent on other health issues.
The Minister may have had a point about the need to evaluate the prospects of success in any legal action.
But his suggestion that an inquiry might not be necessary was extraordinary, given the Government's long-standing commitment to one.
That commitment precedes the Lindsay tribunal and was reiterated as recently as this month when Mr Martin, in an address to the Dáil, restated his belief "that it would be possible to mount a useful investigation".
It should be emphasised in this regard that the IHS was first promised an inquiry into the companies in May 1998 when the former minister for health, Mr Brian Cowen, wrote to the society saying the tribunal would investigate the source of infected products whether they were from Ireland or abroad.
The following year, amid complaints from the IHS about the Government's failure to publish terms of reference, Mr Cowen reiterated this commitment, saying: "We are not just looking into products here that the BTSB provided . . . but also products from American pharmaceutical companies."
Two weeks later, in May 1999, Mr Cowen published the terms and, he emphasised in a press release, they "include a provision which would enable the tribunal to investigate anything arising outside the State that it considers relevant, in so far as the tribunal considers it practicable, appropriate and reasonable to do so".
If the latter clause was designed as a means of escape, Mr Cowen gave the opposite impression to the Dáil the following month.
He then said his Department had been in contact with solicitors acting for one of the companies and, "given that the tribunal is about to be appointed, it would be more appropriate for the tribunal itself to deal with the companies rather than the Department getting involved in the process".
The Government's apparent desire to have the companies investigated was further underlined in a request by Mr Cowen's successor, Mr Martin, in October 2001 for Judge Lindsay to request an extension of the terms after she declared she did not think they were broad enough to cover the international angle.
Mr McDowell, then serving as attorney general, acted as go-between on that occasion, relaying Mr Martin's request to Judge Lindsay and her reply to the Minister.
In a letter to Mr Martin less than a week following the request, Mr McDowell enclosed the chairwoman's opinion that an expansion of the terms would be unfair and unjust to various parties, and he told the Minister to "advise the Government and the Dáil that the statutory pre-condition for altering the terms of reference (the consent of Judge Lindsay) does not exist".
Just what motive lay behind Mr McDowell's intervention last week is far from clear.
But one reason may have been a desire to defend his handling of the issue - as Judge Lindsay's decision not to investigate the companies has created a major headache for Mr Martin.
Another factor may have been professional loyalty to the chairwoman.
What is surprising, however, is that a politician who has built a career campaigning for accountability seems willing to let the key players in the haemophilia tragedy off the hook.
After all that has happened, haemophiliacs and their next-of-kin might well conclude that neither the political nor legal establishment has the courage to take on the drugs companies.
As he begins fresh negotiations on the issue with the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin has one last chance to prove them wrong.