AN incredibly low level of trust exists between the Government and the people who have been infected with hepatitis C, Ms Cathy Honan (PD) told the Seanad yesterday.
Speaking during the second stage of the Health Amendment Bill, 1995, she said this distrust was entirely understandable because of the way these people have been treated. "A backlog of bitterness and disappointment has built up," she said.
She said it suited the State to waive the proof of medical negligence for people applying to the compensation tribunal "because it was clearly negligence on behalf of the State that caused this."
Ms Honan said the deadline for the tribunal next Monday should be extended until the result of the High Court case, in which a woman with hepatitis C is taking a case against the State, is known.
The hepatitis C tribunal has received 817 applications, heard 70 cases and paid out approximately £7.5 million to date. No tribunal award has been rejected, said the Minister of State for Health, Mr Brian O'Shea.
The purpose of the Bill is to make provision for primary health care services for people who have contracted hepatitis C directly or indirectly from receipt of anti D or other blood products or transfusions. The services include prescribed drugs and medicines, counselling services and home help.
But Mr Michael Finneran (FF), the party's health spokesman, said the Bill was "belated" and only introduced after protests from the groups involved. He described the compensation tribunal set up by the Minister for Health as "totally inadequate". He said infected people wanted it set up on a statutory rather than the present ad-hoc basis.
Mr Finneran said he was concerned about the relatives of in elected people who have died. "The Minister has said that families will be dealt with in the same way, but I am led to believe that this will not be the case, that in reality these people will just get a few thousand pounds."
It was criminal, not civil, negligence, as the Minister for Health had stated, that had led to the people becoming infected, Mr Finneran said. "Members of the public were subject to treatment that resulted in illness and contributed in some cases to death. Nobody has been brought to book over this," he said.
Mr Joe Doyle (FG) said there is confidence in the tribunal and that this option "offers numerous advantages" over court proceedings. "I must inform the House that I find it difficult to understand the sustained criticism of the tribunal in view of the fact that the Government has done its utmost to facilitate the victims of the problem."