The Irish Haemophilia Society has called for the report of the Lindsay tribunal to be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The society, whose members met at the weekend to consider a collective response to the report, which was published 11 days ago, said it would be urging the Dáil to recommend such a referral when it debates the report next month.
Until now, the IHS has refrained from seeking prosecutions based on the report.
But its chairman, Mr Brian O'Mahony, said: "In discussing it, the community was of the view that the report should be referred to the DPP. We are not specifically saying it should be referred against this or that particular person. But it's important to send out a signal about how serious the issues are being taken."
Up to 70 members of the society, including many people who gave evidence to the tribunal, met in Dublin to discuss the report, which inquired into how more than 260 haemophiliacs were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through blood products. Seventy-nine of them have died.
Mr O'Mahony said the tone of the five-hour meeting was one of "profound disappointment" with Judge Alison Lindsay's findings, and with the language used in her report, which people felt was "very soft".
"We are dealing with mistakes and failures which led to people dying. Yet the strongest criticism she seems to use is to describe actions as 'inexplicable'. People feel perturbed by that because, if she is not explaining why things happened, she is not doing her job."
He said members welcomed some aspects of the report, including Judge Lindsay's finding that the BTSB had responsibility for the safety of all products it supplied, both imported and domestically sourced.
He said the chairwoman "also got it right on look-back", namely the BTSB's failure to trace infected donations of blood.
However, as regards the personal testimonies of infected haemophiliacs and their next-of-kin, Mr O'Mahony said: "There was a definite sense that the value of that evidence was underplayed. Some people felt their evidence was somewhat dismissed out of hand."
He added: "There was a sense that the report very, very rarely puts culpability on anybody for anything. Wherever possible institutions were blamed. People felt the report was sending out a message that if you work for a State agency you can hide behind that, and not be held responsible for your actions.
"That, we feel, is a very dangerous message."
Of particular concern was the chairwoman's decision not to comment in detail on the appropriateness of the response of the Department of Health to the infections on the grounds that the current Minister had reviewed the compensation arrangements for those involved.
Mr O'Mahony said there was "a profound sense of disappointment and unease" with the chairwoman's decision.
"We did not want answers for the sake of the compensation scheme. The tribunal was supposed to look at what happened and say why it happened, and the fact that she does not do that is, to use one of her own words, 'inexplicable'.
"It's also surprising, regrettable and unsatisfactory."
He said the Dáil should debate the issue notwithstanding Judge Lindsay's finding, particularly as the Dáil was misinformed by two former ministers on the extent of the State's role in the infections.
One of these was Dr Rory O'Hanlon, who admitted at the tribunal to giving wrong information during a 1989 opposition motion whose success led to a general election.
Mr O'Mahony said: "If the message going out is that it's perfectly all right for a minister to go and mislead the Dáil because he is reading out information from unnamed officials then surely we don't need ministers at all.
"We just need stenographers to read out Departmental notes."
He added: "It would be a tragedy not just for our community but society as a whole if the shortcomings are not fully discussed and dealt with.
"I have no doubt something like this will happen to some other group, and how we react to this could have major implications for how that future situation is dealt with."
In a related development, representatives from the IHS are to meet the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, this week to discuss the feasibility of establishing a fresh inquiry into the role of multinational pharmaceutical companies in the HIV and hepatitis C infections.
Judge Lindsay declined to comment on the merits or otherwise of such an inquiry, to which Mr Martin has committed himself in principle.
