RTÉ News has established that the Southern Health Board is negotiating with the Irish Haemophilia Society about the possibility of releasing its confidential papers to the Lindsay Tribunal.
Earlier this year, the Board's CEO, Sean Hurley, announced he was reconsidering his decision not to release the papers following expressions of concern by members at a public meeting in Cork.
Although everyone has a constitutional right to withhold a document from a Tribunal if it relates to legal advice or litigation, the Minister for Health released all Departmental papers to the Lindsay Tribunal last February. Micheal Martin also called on other parties to follow suit.
The Blood Bank, Saint James's Hospital and the Adelaide and Meath Hospital have resolutely refused to do this, but the Southern Health Board appears to be reconsidering its decision.
RTÉ News has confirmed that the Board's solicitor is in discussions with the Irish Haemophilia Society's legal team on what it terms a "without prejudice" basis. If the Board releases its papers, it will put more pressure on those who have not yet done so.
At the Lindsay Tribunal today, evidence which suggested the Blood Transfusion Service was ahead of its European counterparts when it hired a pharmaceutical company to produce clotting agents from domestic plasma has been contested.
The process which commenced in the mid-1980s enabled Irish people with haemophilia to get blood products made from Irish plasma rather than relying on possibly riskier imports from the United States.
Last July, a retired Dutch Blood Bank official was asked by Counsel for the Blood Bank last July whether any other country was much ahead of Ireland. Pim van Aken's response was "certainly not".
However, an expert witness from the United States, Dr Bernard Horowitz, today contended that the process of involving companies in making clotting agents from domestic plasma was "not uncommon" at that time.
