The Irish Haemophilia Society has welcomed the Government's approval yesterday of terms of reference for a tribunal of inquiry into the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood.
Mr Brian O'Mahony, chairman of the IHS, which earlier this month accused the Minister for Health of delaying the inquiry, said that publication of the terms of reference was an important first step. "We are now looking for the Dail to approve them very quickly", he said, "and for the tribunal to be up and running in a matter of weeks."
Announcing the terms of reference yesterday, Mr Cowen said he was anxious to ensure that that they were practical, so that the tribunal would not be required to embark on a long-drawn-out inquiry with little expectation of a useful outcome.
The terms of reference include a provision to enable the tribunal to investigate pharmaceutical companies based in the United States which manufactured most of the blood products implicated in the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C.
The terms of reference allow the tribunal to investigate such companies, and other matters arising outside the State, as far as is "practicable, appropriate and reasonable . . . without unduly delaying the completion of the inquiry".
The Minister said that a chairperson would be appointed to the tribunal when the Oireachtas had approved the terms of reference. Once the chairperson had been given some time to "read into the brief", the tribunal would hold its first public sessions. He hoped that this would be in August or September.
The terms of reference were drawn up in consultations involving the Attorney General and the IHS, which had been critical of what it perceived as the Government's neglect of the issue. It had accused Mr Cowen of following a policy of "delay [and] concealment by inadvertence and lack of interest".
Mr O'Mahony said yesterday that publication of the terms of reference brought to an end a 2 1/2 year process of detailed discussions. "What we wanted to ensure was that the tribunal would look at all the important issues, but not run for ever. There was a balance that had to be struck to ensure the tribunal is both efficient and expeditious, and I think that has been achieved."
The tribunal will investigate the adequacy of the standards and procedures applied by the Blood Transfusion Service Board in processing and manufacturing products which were found to have caused infection. It will not deal with the issue of compensation, which will be revisited in due course, according to the Minister.
The Government is already committed to reviewing a 1991 settlement for people infected by contaminated blood products with a view to ensuring "fair and equitable" compensation.
Mr O'Mahony said that the IHS would be pressing for this to be brought forward once the tribunal was up and running. "The main purpose of the tribunal is to get into the public domain what happened, to ensure it does not happen again", he said. "There are important lessons to be learnt. We don't want to see any other group in society suffer needlessly again."
Mr O'Mahony said that the IHS had written to every member of the Dail, asking for their support.
The Minister said that he could not predict how long the inquiry would last or how much it would cost. However, he expected it to be conducted in "as economic a fashion as possible".
Whatever the outcome, he said, the Government would give the tribunal full financial support to enable it to complete its work.
