Cowen to present Cabinet with report on McCole case legal strategy

The findings of the investigation into the State's legal strategy in the case of the late Mrs Brigid McCole will be presented by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, to today's Cabinet meeting. The Government hopes to approve the report today with a view to its immediate release to members of the McCole family. It is also intended, with the family's permission, to publish the report later this week.

Government sources remained tight-lipped last night on the question of whether Mr Cowen, following a perusal of the papers, would be able to stand up claims made in Opposition that the previous government had employed "heavy-handed" and "jackboot" tactics in the legal strategy employed in the first hepatitis C case in the High Court. It is understood, however, that the Government is satisfied that its concerns were justified. Mr Cowen and the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne, have studied mounds of files from the Chief State Solicitor's office, the Attorney General's office, the Blood Transfusion Service Board and the Department of Health since the new Government was formed. A written report has been drawn up by Mr Cowen outlining the Rainbow government's state of knowledge about the legal strategy adopted in the McCole case.

In one of their last joint commitments before polling day, Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats promised that, if in government, they would publish details of the legal documentation.

Mrs McCole, from Donegal, was the first person to die as a direct result of receiving contaminated anti-D product from the BTSB. She settled for damages of £175,000 just hours before her death last year. Her family has consistently demanded answers to the question as to why the BTSB employed legal tactics which could have made Mrs McCole liable for costs at the time that it admitted liability.