The Government is manipulating families and attempting to prevent the full horror of the organ retention scandal emerging, the Parents for Justice group has claimed.
The group has also called for the second phase of the Post-Mortem Inquiry to be implemented. The calls come on foot of the group's acquisition of documentation under the Freedom of Information Act which it claims indicates that payments were received by individuals for human pituitary glands.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Charlotte Yeats of Parents for Justice said the Government has tried to make life difficult for the group in accessing information and it has to rely on Freedom of Information requests to make any progress as hospitals are so reluctant to supply the organisation with any information.
She added that families who have lodged cases in court as their only means of receiving answers have received letters from the State claims agency encouraging them to withdraw their cases or face huge legal bills.
Ms Yeats said: "This indicates that the Government is determined to put every obstacle in our way but obstacle courses are no problem for us at this stage and will not stop us."
She said that the documentation they have indicates that the practice of payment to individuals was common to all hospitals where the collection of human pituitary glands was carried out. "We have come across lists of cheque payments in more than one hospital" she claimed.
"We are not asking for an expensive tribunal, but simply that the second phase of the Post-Mortem Inquiry be initiated where the work in phase one as well as Parents for Justice's own work should mean that the second phase of the Post Mortem Inquiry would be expeditious and cost-effective" she said.
The group also claimed that with postmortems being carried out in undertakers in Ireland, it is impossible to say how far reaching the problem might be. They said that even though an 18-year jail sentence was handed down to a person for selling body parts in the US recently, in Ireland it was impossible to get even basic information.
The first phase of the Post-Mortem Inquiry - which was chaired by Ms Anne Dunne SC - began hearing in 2001 to enquire into the retention of dead children's organs by hospitals and doctors. It closed on March 31st, 2005.