Howlin explains action on McCole

The Minister for the Environment and former Minister for Health, Mr Howlin, has said that the Government "simply accepted the…

The Minister for the Environment and former Minister for Health, Mr Howlin, has said that the Government "simply accepted the advice we were given" in the case of the hepatitis C victim, the late Mrs Brigid McCole.

Speaking to journalists in Dublin yesterday, he said that everything the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, had said on the matter was true.

The Government had accepted the legal advice given to it and he did not believe that any government would have acted differently.

That was "the beginning and end" of what he meant on the controversial Liveline programme when he said the Government was aware of the legal strategy pursued at the time.