The terms of reference for the HIV tribunal will not be ready by the deadline set by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen. The Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) has reacted angrily to the delay.
Mr Cowen had said the tribunal's terms of reference would be drawn up by the end of this month; it would begin hearing evidence in June; and he would expect it to report by autumn.
However, a spokeswoman for the Department has confirmed that the terms of reference have not yet been completed.
Ms Rosemary Daly, of the IHS, yesterday accused the Department of "kicking the issue into touch". The society was holding e.g.m.s in Dublin and Cork next week and there would be a lot of anger among members if the issue was not settled by then.
"If we have nothing by then, it will be an insult to our members."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said officials have had a number of meetings with the IHS in recent months to discuss the terms of reference.
She said the IHS had submitted "detailed documents" at the end of March. "These were issues which they wanted looked at and how the tribunal would operate."
The Department, she said, was now studying its response. "Obviously, this has delayed the process accordingly," she said, adding that the Department expected it would be completed within a few weeks.
However, Ms Daly said the Government had been able to set up other tribunals "within a few weeks".
"We just want them to get on with it. They have managed to get a peace agreement in the time we have been trying to get the terms of reference."
She said the society wrote again to the Department over a week ago but had received no response. Negotiations had been sticking on the issue of political response to the blood contamination scandal.
The IHS wants the tribunal to address the response of the Blood Transfusion Service Board and the Department of Health when they were informed that the blood products were contaminated with hepatitis C and HIV. The timespan would begin in the early 1970s.
"We have to talk about the political response. Of course it does bring in almost all the political parties because of the time-span involved," said Ms Daly.