Haemophiliacs who were infected with HIV from contaminated blood products are to start legal proceedings against the Minister for Health over compensation.
The Irish Haemophilia Society has said that the action is being taken to overturn the terms of an £8m settlement reached in 1991.
The Government has already conceded that the settlement was neither fair nor equitable.
This is the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter fight between the Irish Haemophilia Society and Minister Micheál Martin over compensation for more than 100 people with haemophilia infected with HIV from blood products. 64 have already died from AIDS related illnesses.
The Society argues that the Minister promised to introduce legislation to increase the level of compensation in Autumn 2000 but did not.
Its Administrator, Rosemary Daly, said today that the Minister committed himself two weeks ago to contacting the Society but failed to do so.
The Society has now decided it will issue one writ every week between now and the General Election.
Its logic is that if the Minister will not legislate to compensate they will fight him through the courts.
