MINISTER FOR Health James Reilly is due to meet representatives of hepatitis C support group Transfusion Positive before the end of the month.
The meeting comes after it was revealed that Transfusion Positive and another hepatitis C support group, Positive Action, have had their funding for 2012 restricted by the HSE while it awaits information relating to the groups’ accounts for 2010 and 2011.
Documents released to The Irish Times by the HSE under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, and published last week, revealed the groups spent more than €250,000 between them on weekends away, golf trips, pool table hire and conferences in 2010.
The groups, which represent people who became infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood products supplied by the State, said the weekends away were of significant benefit to members who are still suffering from ill health.
Further documents show the HSE also queried €100,000 in solicitors’ bills accrued by Transfusion Positive, which it claimed the organisation had spent on running costs. Transfusion Positive denied this.
The HSE wrote to Transfusion Positive on November 22nd, 2011, querying details of the €100,000 expenditure, accrued during the drafting of insurance scheme legislation in 2006, but which it alleged was spent on the day-to-day running costs. It said this was a “very serious issue” and it asked the organisation to forward details of the expenditure.
The HSE claims that, in a meeting in November 2011, the organisation did say that it had “spent the accrued amount on the day-to-day running costs of Transfusion Positive”, something which the executive deemed to be “unplanned expenditure” which had not been budgeted for in the projected budget for 2011.
On December 15th Transfusion Positive wrote to the executive, attaching two letters: one sent by Crann, Lennon and Co, a certified public accountant and registered auditors firm, which was addressed directly to the executive. It stated: “An amount of €50,000 was accrued in the financial statements for the year ended 31.12.2007 and €50,000 was also accrued in the 2008 financial statements for the legal expenses incurred for advice on the drafting of the insurance scheme legislation in 2006 and was based on information received from the solicitor.
“These accruals of €100,000 are being brought forward in the financial statements each year until an invoice is received from the solicitors for the services rendered and then we will be in a position to amend the accrual.”
Last night Transfusion Positive said its solicitors had not yet been paid in respect of work on the drafting of the insurance scheme legislation, but that a bill for their work drawn up by a firm of cost accountants had recently been submitted to the Department of Health.
It said that in 2007 and 2008 it had a surplus in its accounts. “As a careful and prudent organisation, it put the money aside in the event that it might have to pay for the drawing up of the health insurance legislation or if there was a shortfall in fees payable to its solicitors, even though this ultimately should have been a matter for the State as it had infected the individuals.”
It also said that “at no stage was Transfusion Positive paid by the HSE for its solicitors’ work on the legislation or any aspect thereof”.
It added that when it finally became clear that Transfusion Positive’s solicitors would be paid by the Department of Health, “Transfusion Positive utilised its surpluses for the benefit of its members as is the organisation’s mission”.
About 1,000 women in Ireland were infected with hepatitis C from contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin produced by the then Blood Transfusion Service Board between 1977 and 1991.
Some 67 members of Positive Action have so far died. Transfusion Positive, a voluntary organisation, said 51 of its members have died since 2004.
The government set up a tribunal to inquire into the hepatitis C scandal and another to award compensation.