TWO employees of the Blood Transfusion Service Board who ran a company called Paternity Test Services, a blood-testing service in the private sector, have resigned as directors of the company, the Minister for Health told the Dail yesterday.
The former chief medical consultant of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Dr Terry Walsh, has been acting as a consultant to Paternity Test Services. A golden handshake package, negotiated between Dr Walsh and the BTSB, is estimated to be worth up to 600,000, including pension entitlements.
The chief executive officer of the BTSB, Mr Liam Dunbar, confirmed yesterday that there were no conditions attached to the golden handshake given to Dr Walsh in 1995 concerning his future employment. Dr Walsh was named as being partly responsible for the hepatitis C contamination in Mr Justice Finlay's tribunal report.
The two men, Mr Anthony Finch, a laboratory scientist, and Mr Donald Mullahy, a technical officer, are named as Paternity best Services directors in returns to the Companies Office. Mr Finch said yesterday that he did not wish to make any comment.
Paternity Test Services carries out tests to determine parentage of a child, and the majority of its referrals are from solicitors. Dr Walsh, who acted as a consultant, appeared as an expert witness in some subsequent court cases. The company also carries out tissue-typing for bone marrow and kidney transplants.
Dr Walsh's work for Cellmark Diagnostics, a British-based firm which also carries out DNA parentage testing, a more sophisticated test, was not believed to be connected with his work for Paternity Test Services.
Parentage testing was carried out by the Blood Transfusion Service Board until 1984, according to Mr Dunbar. The board then decided to discontinue the service. Paternity Test Services was subsequently set up by the two BTSB employees.
However, paternity testing and the Cellmark Diagnostics service are listed in the 1997 Irish Medical Directory as being provided by the BTSB. Mr Dunbar has said he is "at a loss" as to how the listing came about. It had not been included in the two previous editions.
The editor of the directory, Dr Maurice Gueret, said yesterday that he had not been instructed by the BTSB to make the listing. "They have written to me about this. I know that they did not ask me to include it, nor did Dr Terry Walsh. There are so many entries I am having difficulty remembering where we got the information. I know that I read it somewhere. We apologise if it is an error."
Meanwhile, Positive Action, the group representing women infected with anti-D immunoglobulin, said it was making a submission to the Medical Council on the findings of the Finlay report. "We want to put the facts as uncovered before the Medical Council and to find out whether or not they have any role in investigating them," said Ms Jane O'Brien, chairwoman of Positive Action.
. A bus driver, Mr Larry Young, who was injured in a syringe attack, told RTE yesterday that the BTSB told him and his wife, Ailish, that their blood would not be acceptable for at least a year following the injury. However, they both continued to receive requests for blood donations, the couple said. They told the BTSB about the letters, both in person and by phone, but they continue to arrive, the latest this week.