Mr. Jim Breslin:

There are. They continue to make their way through for two reasons. Cases will come before the tribunal for the first time but mostly at this stage they are cases of people not infected themselves but relatives of people who are infected.

There is also the ability to re-enter a case. Over the years, the tribunal will have made a provisional award to somebody but if that person's illness associated with their having hepatitis C were to deteriorate, they might seek to re-enter the tribunal at that stage.

The State's involvement in this is a very sorry tale. The Deputy can see the size of the compensation being made and the absolute imperative to try to ensure the safety of our blood supply and that we never have this issue arise again.

The only positive I can mention in regard to this entire area is that in the current year, 2015, Ireland has taken account of the developments that have taken place internationally and we are now funding therapies for people with hepatitis C, not just those contaminated through the blood supply but people in Ireland who have hepatitis C. Those therapies now have a very good effectiveness in delivering not just improvement in the person's condition but, in some cases, curative.

We put in place a €30 million programme in 2015, and that is being rolled out on a clinical basis where consultants identify those most urgent in clinical terms to be treated. The Government has announced that as a multi-annual programme so I hope in future years to be talking about the money we spent on curing people with hepatitis C rather than compensating people for hepatitis C. We cannot undo the damage of the past-----