On 14 December last, Judge Alison Lindsay, Chairperson of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the HIV and Hepatitis C Infection of Persons with Haemophilia and Related Matters, ruled on an application on behalf of the Irish Haemophilia Society for an interim order as to costs. The chairperson ruled that the tribunal does not have jurisdiction to grant an interim order for costs to any party and that, therefore, she was precluded from making an interim order in relation to costs in favour of the society.
Immediately after this ruling was delivered, counsel for the Department of Health and Children informed the tribunal that the Department was prepared to consider, on a strictly without prejudice basis and not on the basis of any legal obligation to do so, the question of providing remuneration to legal representatives of the society appearing at public sittings of the tribunal. Counsel went on to indicate that the Department was prepared to have discussions with the society in relation to such matters as the amount and timing of any such payments and the avoidance of double benefit if the society was, in due course, to be awarded its costs in whole or in part by the tribunal. It was also indicated that the Department was determined that any such discussions would not delay the commencement of public sittings of the tribunal and would not be in contempt of the powers of the tribunal.
On 17 December, an offer of exceptional financial assistance was made to the society on a strictly without prejudice basis. The main features of the offer were as follows:
(i)a sum amounting to two thirds of counsel's brief fee to be made available by the Department, at the same rate as that set for the Department's counsel, in respect of not more than two senior counsel and two junior counsel;
