The Minister for Health has agreed to examine expanding the terms of reference of the Lindsay Tribunal. Minister Mícheal Martin is to examine the terms to see if it is possible to allow the Tribunal investigate the international drug firms which made most of the clotting agents infected with hepatitis C and HIV.
The Irish Haemophilia Society has warned that without such an investigation the final report of the Tribunal will be incomplete and flawed.
Earlier this week, the Lindsay Tribunal heard how a leading doctor treating people with haemophilia in the United States did not know in the mid-1980s that drug companies were making clotting agents from plasma collected in prisons.
The question of whether haemophiliacs here injected blood products made from prison plasma was not followed up because the Chairwoman, Judge Alison Lindsay, had ruled she was precluded from examining such company practice by her terms of reference.
The IHS met the Minister for Health for an hour today to demand that legislation be introduced to expand the terms of reference so it can be inquired into.
Afterwards, the IHS said that failure to investigate drug firms would impact on the Tribunal's final report. The Minister said that he hoped to respond to the IHS within two weeks, following discussions with departmental officials, legal advisors and his cabinet colleagues.
However, he made it clear after the meeting that answering haemophiliacs questions was not his sole consideration. The Minister appears to be trying to find a compromise where the Tribunal would make findings on the testimony it has heard already before conducting further inquiries.
If the terms of reference were to be expanded it would need the consent of Judge Lindsay.
