Pressure is to be intensified on politicians over their handling of the State's legal strategy in hepatitis C cases through the establishment of a public "forum" in the autumn.
Positive Action, the group representing women infected by anti-D, is establishing a public forum to which it will invite members of the last government, as well as other politicians involved in dealings with the hepatitis C controversy, to account for their handling of the matter. It will be open to the public and the media.
However, Fine Gael has reacted coolly to the proposal, saying "these matters are presently the subject of actions in the courts which should be allowed proceed without external pressure from any parallel process".
It is understood there is no High Court action listed for hearing in the near future.
The chairwoman of Positive Action, Ms Jane O'Brien, confirmed yesterday that questions arising from the report into the legal strategy adopted in the case of the late Mrs Bridget McCole, published last Friday, will be the focus of the proposed forum.
"Positive Action is prepared to organise such a forum in September. It will provide the opportunity for members of the Rainbow Cabinet and their advisers to debate the many questions that arise from their handling of the legal strategy of anti-D claims during their term in office," Ms O'Brien said.
While the focus of attention centred on the report of the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen and the independent legal counsel, Ms Fidelma Macken SC, it was the accompanying documentation that contained the significant "opinions, advice and correspondence", she said.
The former minister for health, Mr Michael Noonan, who has been strongly criticised for his handling of the McCole case, is due to return to Ireland today and is expected to consult with the Fine Gael leadership before responding to last Friday's report.P}His party continued to defend Mr Noonan over the weekend, challenging Mr Cowen to "state his own legal strategy on hepatitis C".
Mr Cowen indicated he wants a situation where future litigants pursuing damages will not have to prove negligence. Fine Gael asked the Minister to state if he intended to introduce legislation to "give himself power to require the BTSB to settle all cases".
Ms Paula Kealy, vice-chairwoman of Positive Action, who at 42 years of age has early cirrhosis of the liver, said Mr Noonan had sat across the table from Positive Action representatives, knowing he and everybody else involved "had no defence".
"When we got the expert report way back in 1994 we were lead to believe that was the full story. That wasn't even the tip of the iceberg . . . what we really need is a public forum that Positive Action can ask Michael Noonan and other politicians and the leaders of all the Opposition parties where and why this has happened, and how it happened, and why these questions weren't answered for us, two years ago at least," Ms Kealy said.
Responding to the forum proposal, a statement from the Fine Gael party pointed out that "the infection of women by blood products took place long before the previous government came to office . . . The previous government therefore had no interest whatever, of its own, in concealing any information from the public. Everything it did was done in the public interest with a view to balancing all the rights involved in a fair and judicious way".
Mrs Mary Quinlan, the Carlow-based woman infected with hepatitis C by the BTSB who settled for an undisclosed sum in aggravated damages last month, has said she awaits a response from Mr Cowen to her request for papers relating to the legal strategy adopted in her case.