I thank the Chair for allowing me raise this matter. The House is well aware of the scandal of infection of over 1,600 women with the hepatitis C virus from contaminated blood products. With around half the cases now dealt with by the compensation tribunal, the final cost of this scandal to the taxpayer will be over £350 million. To put it in perspective, this sum would build nearly three new hospitals. All those infected are deserving of compensation and full health care.
To date, none of those who caused this infection has been brought to justice. Indeed, many of those criticised in the Finlay report on the blood tribunal are taking legal action to quash adverse findings against them by the tribunal.
The name of one brave women is etched on the minds of all those who have followed this tragic affair. The late Brigid McCole was hounded by the last Government — of which my party was a member. Only on her death bed did the blood bank settle reluctantly for a miserable sum. Mrs. McCole was forced to go public as the State used every legal technicality to deny her the right to the truth and proper compensation. The same approach was used recently in the Mary Quinlan case. We now have the spectre of the current Minister for Health and Children adopting a hard cop approach to other sick women infected with hepatitis C, particularly in the case of Mrs. Sandra Fallon of Chicago.
In a breathtaking display of inhumanity the Government has refused to provide health care to a woman who, clearly on the evidence presented, received contaminated anti-D product at Castlebar hospital in 1993. There is a scandal in this case which must be exposed. The Government came to power on the promise of dealing compassionately with victims of hepatitis C infection. What is the Minister's current attitude? He asked Mrs. Fallon to prove her case to the Blood Transfusion Service Board, the agency which infected her, covered up the scandal and claimed she had a different strain of the virus to others who were infected. This claim was made despite a test carried out at the UCD virus reference laboratory which shows Mrs. Fallon has the same virus as others.
The Minister asked Mrs. Fallon to go to the compensation tribunal. However, privately he knows it cannot examine the scandal of this case or get to the truth. What is the Government scared of? This is the first international case of its kind and what has it revealed? Since this scandal became public in early 1994 the blood bank has not made any proper attempt to trace Irish women who received contaminated blood products and who subsequently went to live abroad before the scandal broke. In newspaper advertisements this week the BTSB states that international advertising, which is to follow, will help trace those abroad who were infected. The blood bank has waited nearly five years to undertake that search of sick and dying Irish women abroad. This is a scandal.
The Minister's handling of Sandra Fallon's case is inhuman. He should ensure that the BTSB provides Mrs. Fallon with the health care she needs until the issues in contention are resolved. By refusing to do so he runs the risk of allowing a sick woman to die, a woman infected by this State. She is as deserving as others who have been infected.
Because she is from America the State seems to want to question her status and morals with snide insinuations about how she might have contracted the virus from other sources. My daughter had to suffer the same insinuations, yet she considered herself lucky because despite the inhuman things that happened to her she has been receiving treatment. What future faces my grandson in the unlikely event that tests prove positive? Will he have to travel this long road for justice?
The public have seen and heard Mrs. Fallon. She is a genuine person, a mother of a young boy and the wife of a deeply caring father. The hospital records provide good grounds to support her case that she received contaminated anti-D. We also know that more than 300 batches of potentially contaminated anti-D were sent to Castlebar General Hospital. There is good reason to believe that her medical records were altered to cover up the fact that she received contaminated anti-D. Those who are not directly affected by the hepatitis C scandal may feel a little weary of the subject. They should remember how this State treated Mrs. Brigid McCole and how the members of the Government criticised the former Minister, Deputy Noonan, over his handling of the issue. The lessons of the past have not been learned. That is something which should concern every citizen who may have reason to use the health services some day.