The chairman of the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Brian O'Mahony, is to begin giving evidence to the Lindsay tribunal today after the inquiry was unexpectedly adjourned yesterday.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Finlay SC, applied for the adjournment after the late submission of documents by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (as the Blood Transfusion Service Board is now known).
Mr Finlay said supplementary documents, to be used for the cross-examination of Mr O'Mahony, had been submitted by the IHS and the Department of Health last Friday.
However, a further submission of 100 pages of documents was made by the blood board over the weekend and it was not possible to get the material to Mr O'Mahony until yesterday morning.
Acceding to the request, Judge Alison Lindsay said it was regrettable but understandable. It would be unfair for Mr O'Mahony to have to start his evidence without getting time to consider the documents, she said.
Of the BTSB's late application, she said the tribunal had seen what happened when documents were not submitted on time - "a day more or less has to go by". It was a practical illustration, she said, "of how deadlines have to be met".
The public gallery had been fuller than usual yesterday as a number of haemophiliacs travelled from around the State to hear Mr O'Mahony's evidence.
A haemophiliac himself, Mr O'Mahony is due to testify about the state of knowledge of haemophiliacs regarding HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s, and about how the BTSB responded to their safety fears.
The tribunal has already heard that the IHS chairman expressed concern as early as 1983 that imported blood products might infect haemophiliacs with AIDS.
