THE compensation tribunal for hepatitis C victims is to be put on a statutory basis, the Minister for Health announced.
Mr Noonan also said that terms of the compensation scheme would provide for an appeal to the High Court on the amount of awards made by the tribunal.
He said that giving the tribunal statutory authority would take some time and, in the meantime he was determined that its operation would not be disrupted or delayed. It would continue to operate as normal under the direction of Mr Justice Egan so that all those people who had already applied for a hearing would get it as arranged.
He would seek to ensure he added, that everyone who had either gone through the tribunal, who was currently before the tribunal, or who would be before the tribunal in the near future, would benefit retrospectively from any changes which might be made.
Mr Noonan said he hoped that the consultation process with representative groups and the tribunal chairman, to amend the terms, of reference of the compensation scheme, could commence at an early date.
The Minister was speaking at the conclusion of the debate on the report of the hepatitis C tribunal.
An opposition motion condemning the Government's handling of the scandal was defeated by 72 votes to 61, and the House approved a motion that the Government would not seek to resile from or repudiate any of the report's findings.
Mr Noonan said he had no proposals at present to conduct a national survey to establish the prevalence of hepatitis C in the population as a whole. It was an issue which required further examination, and he proposed to seek the advice of the statutory consultative council which he had established last November. He had been reliably informed, he said, that there was no evidence to suggest that its prevalence in Ireland was any higher than in other comparable countries.
Replying to the debate, which began last Thursday, the Minister said that he had no intention of chasing after irresponsible allegations which were groundless and whose sole purpose was basely and abjectly political in nature.
Earlier the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, accused the
Taoiseach and the Tanaiste of failing to protect the public interest on the matter. "Both men stood idly by while the Cabinet was briefed by the Minister for Health on how Mrs McCole would be dragged to every possible legal extreme.
"At times when the Minister for Health was under pressure in this House, because it was beginning to be known that the BTSB had no defence, the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste directly participated in ensuring that the cover-up would not be exposed. They shored the Minister for Health up and are still shoring him and Minister Howlin up even though, their behaviour is unjustifiable.
Mr Batt O'Keeffe (FF, Cork South Central) said Mr Noonan and Mr Howlin had adopted the attitude that if they ignored the matter it would go away. "The decision to agree to aggravated damages was wrung out of the Government because of pressure from Fianna Fail and Positive Action."
The Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney, said the community should "not hold its breath" while waiting for the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider the Finlay report on the hepatitis C inquiry. After all, she said, the report of the beef tribunal had been sent to the DPP and "we're still awaiting a response".
She told the Dail that the manner in which the victims had been treated since 1994 when the hepatitis C scandal became public was scandalous. It was scandalous that a Government and Cabinet Ministers would "try and fob off" the women affected by this tragedy.
"I think it is a great pity that more emotional feeling was not shown to the victims by the State," she said. She believed in fiscal rectitude but such attempts to save the State finances were indefensible when the women were given a life-threatening virus by the State, which was supposed to protect them.
It was scandalous that the golden handshake to BTSB officials exceeded the compensation to victims. The golden handshake was for incompetence and gross dereliction of duty.
Ms Harney concluded that a new institution was needed to go with the new location of the BSTB in St James's Hospital. It should be an institution with full professional and personal accountability and all staff transferring to the new department should be aware of the requirement of accountability and transparency.
Mr Eric Byrne (DL, Dublin South Central) said the hepatitis C affair was the worst health scandal to hit the State since its foundation. A saga "of almost unbelievable incompetence" had left 1,600 women "infected with a medical time bomb".
No tribunal could undo the grave damage done and no tribunal could repair the pain inflicted on the families of victims or potential victims. Everybody should be outraged by what happened but, "we need to ensure that that outrage results in constructive proposals".
He criticised Ms Harney's comments on radio last week when she said that confidence in the BTSB, had been undermined and people would be concerned about receiving blood. He urged all those faced with a decision about whether or not to accept a blood transfusion "to heed only the advice of their doctors".
He was especially concerned "in view of the revelations in today's Irish Times that patients are increasingly reluctant to accepts blood products, even for life-saving procedures, because of the hepatitis C scandal."
He said the decision to amend the compensation scheme to allow the possibility of victims receiving additional damages "reflects the gravity of the issue at stake". He said it was "a logical response to the appalling catalogue" of error and unimaginable suffering.
Ms Frances Fitzgerald (FG, Dublin South East) said women's experiences of the health service in Ireland had not been good despite its technical quality. "I hope that the new women's health strategy will begin to meet women's health needs in this State in a comprehensive way. The whole question of the Government's approach to liability in cases such as this is one that clearly needs examination."
