THE extension of the deadline for the acceptance of awards made by the hepatitis C compensation tribunal was welcomed by the Fianna Fail spokeswoman on health, Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn.

She said that the extension, to one month after the judicial inquiry made its report, had been sought by her party for some time.

Mrs Geoghegan Quinn said she had been contacted by people who said they had accepted awards from the tribunal on the basis that all the information about the hepatitis C scandal was in the report made by Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien. Now they had discovered that a tribunal of inquiry had been established, because all the facts were not known.

If other information emerged from the inquiry, as no doubt it would, where would it leave these people? They would feel shortchanged, she said.

The Minister Health, Mr Noonan, said that the compensation tribunal had never become involved in the issue of negligence or otherwise. It made payments to people on the basis that they could establish a link between hepatitis C and the receipt of infected blood or blood product.

"That is all that is required toe prove at the compensation tribunal. The only change I am making is that persons from now on will have a longer period of time to consider whether to accept an award or not.

"There is no suggestion that there will be any variation in the manner in which an award will be calculated."

Mr Noonan said that the compensation tribunal was continuing, with its hearings, having fixed cases up to the end of March of next year.

It was offering compensation to plaintiffs at the rate of, on average, a bout 10 a week.