The tribunal of inquiry which opens today in Distillery Building, Church Street, has its origins in the hepatitis C tribunal of three years ago.
That was set up to investigate the infection of people with the Anti-D vaccine administered to certain pregnant women at risk from a blood incompatibility with their babies. Some of the blood product, administered by the Blood Transfusion Service Board, was contaminated with hepatitis C.
Women at risk of a rhesus reaction were not the only recipients of blood products from the BTSB. Others included those who received blood transfusions for various reasons and, above all, those suffering from haemophilia, a blood disorder which affects clotting and leads to internal bleeding. For about 20 years they have been treated with Factor 8, a clotting agent produced from blood.
This product, which had the capacity to transform their lives, brought the threat of serious illness or death to haemophiliacs. Many of them received hepatitis C from contaminated blood. Others were infected with the HIV virus through the same product. Of the estimated 400 haemophilia sufferers in Ireland, 210 were infected with hepatitis C between the mid-1970s and 1990. During the 1980s, 103 people were infected with the HIV virus.
An indication of the seriousness of the problem is that these two diseases, rather than haemophilia, have been responsible for all but two of the 68 deaths of haemophiliacs which have taken place in the past 15 years. The majority of these have died from AIDS-related illnesses.
The Irish Haemophilia Society unsuccessfully sought full legal representation at the hepatitis C tribunal. It also pressed for the tribunal's terms of reference to be broadened, again unsuccessfully. Eventually it pulled out of this inquiry, saying its concerns were not being addressed.
The then coalition government considered what should be done about the haemophiliac victims of blood contamination, and in January 1997 it decided to establish a new tribunal to examine the infection of blood products with HIV. This was later expanded to include hepatitis C.
However, it was a year before this tribunal even received a starting date, and another nine months before the terms of reference were published in the national newspapers. Over the summer the Government nominated Circuit Court Judge Alison Lindsay as chairwoman and sole member of the tribunal.
Its counsel are Mr John Finlay SC, Mr Gerard Durcan SC, Mr Patrick McCann and Ms Grainne Clohessy, instructed by Ms Anne Spain of the Chief State Solicitor's Office.
When it meets today the tribunal will consider requests for legal representation from interested parties.
The tribunal's terms of reference are wide. It will examine which products caused the infection with HIV and hepatitis C, the adequacy of the criteria applied by the BTSB in relation both to donor selection, screening and testing and to the treatment of the blood products, as well as the decision-making process within the board itself relating to all these matters.
It will also look into the actions taken by the board and the adequacy of the response of the Minister for Health to the danger of infection.
The terms of reference also say the tribunal "shall investigate anything arising outside the State that it considers relevant . . . in so far as the tribunal considers it practicable, appropriate and reasonable." This clearly refers to the pharmaceutical companies with which the BTSB dealt.
The terms of reference provide for an interim report to the clerk of the Dail within four months of the establishment of the tribunal.
