Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The situation as I understand it is that these were not false positives. There is a group of around 30 or 40 women - at present, but there could be tens of thousands - who were given an infected batch of anti-D but never tested positive for hepatitis C. They have a group of symptoms which can be linked to hepatitis C but can also be linked to a large number of other illnesses. The situation is that one has to test positive for hepatitis C to get compensation, and they do not. That is the current situation. In the absence of any medical science to back up the view that it was a false negative, it is not open to them to go to the tribunal, but as I have always said, if this is a decision that is based on medical science and if the medical science stacks up, then that can be reconsidered. The position is that they were exposed to infected anti-D, as were tens of thousands of people, but they did not test positive for hepatitis C. They have a set of symptoms that could be linked to hepatitis C but could also be linked to any number of other organic illnesses.