MICHAEL NOONAN says that he would have handled many aspects of the hepatitis C scandal differently if he had been privy to all the information now available to him as a result of the Finlay tribunal report.
Most of his decisions, he believes, were "proper" given his level of knowledge at the time.
The compensation tribunal would have been established on a statutory basis if he had received the information sooner, he said. However, he knew statutes took a "long time" to go through the Dail and his wish was to set up a compensation scheme quickly "as an alternative to the contention that takes place in personal injury cases in the courts".
Now, he says, it is a priority to introduce such a statute. However, he would not be pinned down on an exact time frame. He will remove the exemption in the terms of reference of the compensation tribunal which says it cannot adjudicate on aggravated or exemplary damages.
The tribunal would be in the same footing as the High Court. "But there are other issues that remain to be decided. All changes will be applied retrospectively to those who have already received awards.
He has asked Mr Justice Egan, who chairs the compensation tribunal, to advise him on how to proceed. "He is the man with the practical experience. He has heard almost 300 compensation claims. There are rules that he has informally applied at the tribunal that would be worth incorporating." Mr Noonan will also be consulting the victim support groups.
Asked about the recent admission by the previous Health Minister, Mr Brendan Howlin, that the Government decided the legal strategy in the case of Mrs Brigid McCole, from Co Donegal, who died last October, Mr Noonan replied that Mr Howlin could "quite clearly answer for himself".
However, he is adamant that neither he nor the Government sought to direct the strategy. "It seems to me that what Mr Howlin was seeking to reflect was the fact that the Government had strong legal advice that it did not have any liability in the case."
Mr Noonan says that he was informed by civil servants and the BTSB that Mrs McCole had been "quite ill" for some time before her death and he was advised that the BTSB had admitted liability. He does not feel he could have done anything more at the time for the woman who eventually accepted a settlement of £175,000 before she died.
"We all know the way legal eases can go. I had no power to direct the BTSB on how to conduct the situation. I had strong legal advice that the State did not have liability and I could not ignore that."
THE enormity of the hepatitis C problem had struck him, he said, when he received the report of the Expert Group headed by Dr Miriam Hederman. "While a lot of new information has come out in the new Finlay report, the main story was there in that report."
The hepatitis C scandal had been an "extremely difficult" issue to deal with, one of the most difficult of his political career, mainly because of the way it had affected the lives of so many people. This is one of the reasons why he would like to return to the Department of Health: to continue to deal with a situation of which he now has intimate knowledge.
Asked if he believed that the blood contamination scandal had damaged his political career, he says that remains to be seen.
"It is difficult to take things out of time frame, but quite clearly the hepatitis C issue was a very difficult one. It is the greatest health scandal in terms of public health since the State was founded. It was extraordinarily traumatic for the victims and their families. It was unprecedented, either in this country or elsewhere.
"I brought forward a whole series of solutions to particular problems. Quite clearly, certain aspects of it have been controversial, but I have put myself under the scrutiny of the Dail and the scrutiny of the tribunal of inquiry.
"At the end of the day, it is for the people to judge, but it is not possible to go through a long political career without having slings and arrows. My main concern would be with the victims. I am not interested in vindication or exoneration and I am not that interested either in whether I am politically damaged.
"The issue for me is to continue to ensure that my focus is clearly on the victims and to ensure the health strategies are in place and the access to compensation is in place to protect their interests."
He says the affair has also taken its toll on the officials in the Department, a number of whom gave evidence to the tribunal of inquiry. "Of course, there was a lot of anxiety for those appearing before the tribunal . .. There is a very good record of output from this Department and you would not get that without hard work from the civil servants."