Article `not found' in Department files

A former senior official with the Department of Health agreed yesterday that it was "inconceivable" that an important newspaper article suggesting locally made blood products were responsible for infecting some haemophiliacs was not picked up by the Department.

Mr Michael Lyons said he understood that the Irish Times article, from 1986, was not discovered among the Department's files. He first saw it in 1991, he said, two years after preparing an influential ministerial memorandum for a Dail debate on whether to compensate HIV-infected haemophiliacs.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS), Mr Martin Hayden SC, Mr Lyons agreed the normal practice was for the Department to retain such articles and it was inconceivable such an important article was not picked up.

As to how it finally came to light, Mr Lyons said the only conclusion he could come to was that it was perhaps handed to him by one of the parties negotiating a compensation settlement in 1991.

On whether the article might have influenced the Department's view on compensation had it been investigated further, Mr Lyons said delving into the source of infections was not a central consideration then.

Asked whether that meant there was no in-depth inquiry into cause and effect, he said he personally did not go into it although it appeared another Department official examined the issue in some detail.

The article recorded the view of the director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, Prof Ian Temperley, that native Factor 9 could have been responsible for infecting a number of haemophilia B patients with HIV. This supported an allegation by the IHS that not only imported concentrates were to blame for infecting patients.

The tribunal has heard evidence to suggest the BTSB was worried about the negative publicity arising from such claims. The minutes of a BTSB board meeting in February 1989 recorded Mr Ted Keyes, former chief executive, expressing "particular concern" about certain statements "that would indicate that some of our products were infected, whereas it is quite clear that the source of infection was imported product".