Vol. 515 No. 2
69 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for Health and Children the discussions, if any, he has held with the Irish Haemophilia Society concerning the State discharging legal costs incurred by the society on an ongoing basis during the sitting of the tribunal considering the administration of contaminated blood products to haemophiliacs; the issues which remain in dispute; and the proposals, if any, made to resolve the current impasse. [5212/00]
131 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the discussions, if any, he has held with the Irish Haemophilia Society concerning the State discharging legal costs incurred by the society on an ongoing basis during the sitting of the tribunal considering the administration of contaminated blood products to haemophiliacs; the issues which remain in dispute; and the proposals, if any, made to resolve the current impasse. [5597/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 131 together.
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 were, in due course, to be awarded their 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 that: 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; a sum amounting to two-thirds of the refresher fees payable thereafter to counsel to be made available, at the same rate as that set for the Department's counsel, in respect of certified attendance by the society's counsel at sitting days of the tribunal; two-thirds of the society's solicitors fees to be made available, at the same rate as that set for the tribunal's solicitor, in respect of certified attendance by the society's solicitor at sitting days of the tribunal.
To date, the society has not given a definitive response to that offer. However, the society has recently issued legal proceedings on the question of costs, including the costs of the society's expert witnesses, against the tribunal, Ireland and the Attorney General.
