Members of Positive Action, the hepatitis C action group, have described their "shock, hurt and bitter disappointment" following the DPP's decision not to take action in relation to matters uncovered by the tribunal of inquiry into anti-D. It would not be the end of it, they said.
The organisation's chairwoman, Ms Jane O'Brien, said the DPP's response was inadequate considering that "contaminated anti-D had already caused death". Mrs Brigid McCole died in October last year from liver failure due to hepatitis C which she got as a result of receiving anti-D.
Flanked by several women who had also received contaminated blood, Ms O'Brien said it was "unbelieveable" that no prosecutions were to arise from "the greatest health scandal in the history of the State". "People who were exposed during that inquiry for wrongful acts can now, it appears, escape being held publicly accountable for their actions," and this was totally unacceptable, she said.
Asked if they would initiate civil proceedings, Ms O'Brien said the group was "continuing to take advice on that matter". But important questions arose from the DPP's response. "We want to know the details of the preliminary report given by the gardai to the DPP, whether the DPP instructed the gardai to take statements from the persons named in the inquiry, and most specifically, was the death of Brigid McCole taken into account in his decision," she said. The group had been informed of the DPP's decision at a meeting with the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, last Thursday. They had waited until yesterday to voice their reaction in order to give the McCole family time to come to terms with the news. The McColes would not be making a public comment but had been "shocked and appalled" by the DPP's decision.
"The lives of close to 1,000 women have been ruined through the known negligence of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, and many more women will die prematurely because of the serious wrongs outlined in the Finlay report," said Ms O'Brien.
One of those women, Ms Paula Kealy, vice-chairwoman of the group, developed cirrhosis of the liver after contracting hepatitis C in 1977. "I am facing premature death over the next 10 years because of what people in the BTSB did. I feel shocked, hurt and disappointed about the whole thing. Personally I would not let it rest."