Judge Alison Lindsay, Chairwoman of the Lindsay Tribunal, has turned down an application by the Irish Haemophilia Society to have proceedings delayed for the second time in a week. The Tribunal has just began the final phase of its work involving hearing evidence from recognised international experts in the field of haematology and blood products used by people with haemophilia.
Martin Hayden, Senior Counsel for the IHS, argued this evening that his client has not had adequate time to prepare for this phase due to the absence up until recently of statements from proposed witnesses. He argued that the Tribunal has had up to 13 months to prepare for the examination of expert witnesses but the IHS had been given five working days to make similar preparations for the examination of witnesses proposed by other parties.
However, this application was opposed by John Finlay, Senior Counsel for the Tribunal, who said that the IHS had been made aware of the order of witnesses earlier this year but did not make any objection at that date.
Ruling against the IHS, Judge Alison Lindsay said that all parties had been informed of the timetable from May 16, that articles by the expert witnesses had already been presented to the Tribunal and therefore it was not new information. She said that she sympathised with the situation which they felt they found themselves in but she could not accommodate them.
Rosemary Daly, Administrator of the IHS, was highly critical of the ruling and stated that she felt that they were being put under extreme pressure. As a consequence of the ruling, Dr Alfred M Prince will become the second expert witness to give evidence to the Lindsay Tribunal next Tuesday.
Earlier, an American blood expert explained to the Tribunal why he switched haemophiliacs to a product which was heated in the hope of inactivating HIV in 1983. The Tribunal has already heard that most Irish haemophiliacs were not put on heat-treated products until 1985. Professor William Hoots from the University of Texas is the first expert witness to give evidence to the Tribunal. He explained that he first heard of a connection between HIV and haemophilia in mid-1982, although the virus had not yet been identified at that time.
Professor Hoots described the haemophilia community as the "canary in the mineshaft" for blood supply safety. He said that each dose of clotting agent is made from thousands of donations, so they would be among the first to suffer the effects if there was something wrong with the blood supply. Following the HIV diagnosis of eight haemophiliacs by the end of 1982, Professor Hoots switched to a new product. He realised that heat treatment was not proven to eliminate HIV, even though other viruses had been shown to be inactivated by heat. He said that he did not want to look back years later and think "if only". Professor Hoots told the Tribunal that none of patients put under observation developed HIV after September 1983 when heat treatment was introduced.
Dr Emer Lawlor, Deputy Medical Director of the Blood Transfusion Services, was asked to explain why heat treatment was not introduced here until 1985. She argued that there were fears at the time that patients might develop inhibitors to the heat-treated product. However, she accepted that there were no documents to suggest that Dr Jack O'Riardon, National Director of the Blood Transfusion Service, had considered changing until instructed to by Professor Ian Temperley in December 1984.
