Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 25 Jul 1996

Vol. 468 No. 4

Written Answers. - Information Refusal.

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

Question:

138 Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn asked the Minister for Health the reason the Blood Transfusion Service Board has refused to supply information to a person (details supplied) in County Meath as per a letter to his office dated 27 June 1996, in view of the fact that refusal to release information is seriously jeopardising this person's case before the Tribunal of Inquiry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15087/96]

Minister for Health (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick East): The letter of 27 June 1996 states that the Blood Transfusion Service Board failed to respond to a letter dated 2 October 1995 from the person in question and to requests for information from the same person's legal representatives. The issues raised therein concern the tracing of donations and of blood donors in the context of possible infection with hepatitis C from blood transfusions.

I have been informed by the BTSB that in response to the letter of 2 October 1995, the Chief Executive Office of the Board contacted the person in question by telephone on 18 October, 1995 and conveyed to her that the BTSB has checked the details of the donors of the two blood units referred to in the correspondence of 2 October. He informed her that while the Board maintains a very strict policy of confidentiality in relation to donor details, on checking the donor details in this case, he confirmed that the donors of the two units had not been identified during the Targeted Lookback Programme and that the BTSB had no evidence to suggest that the individuals in question were or are hepatitis C positive. He also pointed out that the tracing of donors of blood to persons who have subsequently been found to be hepatitis C positive involves many moral social and legal issues and that this matter was under ongoing consideration.

In its letter dated 9 July 1996 the BTSB responded to the legal representatives of the person concerned, informing them that the two blood unit numbers supplied by the person were not associated with donors whose donations are the subject of the Targeted Lookback Programme and that neither of the donors have returned to donate blood since the introduction of screening for hepatitis C in 1991.