Noonan hopes for progress on EU blood standards

THE Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, in Brussels yesterday to prepare for Ireland's Presidency of the EU, said he hopes to make significant progress on setting EU standards for blood and blood products during his term of office.

Mr Noonan said that the experience of the Irish hepatitis C contamination gave insights into a problem that was now seriously affecting the whole EU.

An estimated to million people are infected, the bulk almost certainly through the blood supply.

He hoped that it would be possible to reach agreement on routine testing procedures, labelling, and on the principle that blood donation should be unpaid. Payment for blood tended to raise the proportion of blood taken from those at risk, he said.

Standards could also be set for the manufacture of blood products, he said, and he hoped that it would be possible to make progress on blood self sufficiency within the Union.

This is likely to mean eventually the establishment of a European blood bank, a proposal that is bound to prove controversial.

Mr Noonan said he had positive discussion on the issue yesterday with the Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, who also hash responsibility for health issues, and recently with the Dutch Health Minister, who will take over the chair of the ministerial meetings in January.

The Dutch Health Minister is a former head of his country's blood bank and was keen to make progress on the issue, Mr Noonan said.

The Dutch Minister will host a special meeting of scientists and then health ministers in Adare Manor, Co Limerick, in September to launch the initiative.

The second health priority of the presidency, Mr Noonan said, would be the formal adoption of the Union's £20 million five year programme to combat drug addiction.