The Irish Haemophilia Society is to meet the Minister for Health on Thursday to discuss widening the terms of the Lindsay Tribunal to include pharmaceutical companies alleged to have manufactured blood products infected with HIV.
The meeting, which will take place two years after the tribunal held its first preliminary session in the Distillery Buildings, Church Street, Dublin, is being held at the request of the Irish Haemophilia Society.
The society said it was hopefully that the Minister would agree to widen the terms of reference of the tribunal to include pharmaceutical companies responsible for blood products which allegedly infected 96 people with HIV in Ireland.
A spokesperson for the Minister, Mr Martin, confirmed the meeting is to take place but said he was not aware of any formal agenda.
"The Minister was asked for a meeting to hear the views of the IHS and he agreed to it," the spokesperson said.
The tribunal, chaired by Judge Alison Lindsay, was set up by the then Minister for Health, Mr Brian Cowen, on September 8th, 1999 to "inquire urgently" into certain matters surrounding the infection of some 260 people with HIV and/or hepatitis C.
Last July, Judge Lindsay rejected an application from the society to inquire into certain actions by the international drugs companies and said such a "major inquiry" fell outside the expressed terms of reference of the tribunal.
The society's administrator, Ms Rosemary Daly, said yesterday, "this tribunal is almost at the finish line. The Minister cannot tell the 96 people infected with HIV that the Government will not do its utmost to find out how that happened.
"Flood was extended before. This tribunal is about life, not money. We appreciate the public concern about tribunals, but it should be extended."
One-hundred-and-five people were infected with HIV, eight through Irish blood products and 96 through imported blood products allegedly derived from US blood plasma. So far, 77 have died after being infected with HIV or hepatitis C or both.
The society argues that documents held in a depository in Florida and used in litigation connected to the HIV infection of haemophiliacs in the US should be examined by the Lindsay Tribunal.
It said the depository of over one million documents is indexed and could be speedily accessed if the tribunal were to apply to the relevant US judge for access to it. It believes that around one-tenth of the documents are relevant to the Irish situation.