Hepatitis C victims to get extra award

THE Government has decided to grant additional special damages to the 1,600 victims of the hepatitis C scandal.

In recognition of "the extraordinary anguish and distress experienced by the victims and their families", it announced its intention last night to "reappraise and amend" the compensation scheme.

The benefits of any adjustment to the scheme will be made available to all victims, including cases which have already been determined by the compensation tribunal.

The Government is also giving, an undertaking that it "will not seek to resile from or repudiate any of the findings of fact" in the report of the tribunal into the Blood Transfusion Service Board "in any proceedings, either in court or before the compensation tribunal".

These commitments are contained in a new Government motion which will be debated in the Dail this morning.

The decision to effectively amend the terms of reference off the compensation tribunal, chaired by Mr Justice Seamus' Egan, so the issue of awards can be reappraised, was taken after a lengthy Cabinet meeting, which ended around 11 p.m. yesterday.

It is understood the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, met the representatives of the campaign group, Positive Action, during the Cabinet's deliberations. He agreed to its request to put the compensation scheme for victims on a statutory basis.

Mr Noonan is expected to meet Mr Justice Egan this morning to inform him of the Government's changes in the terms of reference, of the compensation scheme.

Though the victims demand for exemplary and aggravated damages is not explicitly mentioned in the Government's new motion, the Government's decision indicates that it intends to remove the prohibition on aggravated damages in the tribunal's terms of reference to enable victims to secure additional awards.

The specifically expressed commitment "to reappraise and amend" the scheme of compensation and its terms of reference is, believed to incorporate a form of words suggested by Positive Action. The Government could give no estimate of the costs of the compensation changes.

Fianna Fail welcomed the Government's "U turn" in the new Dail motion late last night. It noted, however, that the wording was very vague and conditional, and only promised to reappraise with a view to amending the scheme of compensation.

Fianna Fail said its amendment provided for the actual amendment of the compensation scheme rather than aspirations in this regard.

In the revised Dail motion, the Minister for Health calls on the House to support his request to the BTSB to make known its position on liability in all outstanding cases forthwith.

On the question of damages, the motion supports the Government's intention to reappraise and amend the scheme of compensation and its terms of reference, "including the question of whether the tribunal should be established on a statutory basis in the light of the report, the reappraisal to take place following consultation with representatives of the victims and with the chair of the compensation tribunal and consideration of any legal advice".