Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I have experience of dealing with this issue on a policy basis in Northern Ireland and I am aware of the difficulties surrounding the emerging knowledge at the time and at what stage people might have been expected to know but there is little doubt that one third of the way through the 1980s the question of the treatment of products was accepted and I am surprised there were not major warning signs earlier about the dangers of using blood taken from infected donors. This relates to the point raised by Senator Norris regarding whether people knew. If people were not aware of what they should have known professionally, was that not a concern of the relevant professional disciplinary bodies and others?

One of the conclusions I draw from the report is that it might discourage people from rushing to set up tribunals willy nilly as the sole means of finding out the truth. This issue might well have been handled better by means of a criminal investigation, as happened in France, for instance. People were held accountable there at the end of the day. I am not one for locking up people but, nevertheless, in terms of our methods of getting at the truth, a tribunal is not necessarily the best one. I would prefer to deal with the criminal investigation first and then establish a tribunal to see what lessons could be learned in terms of how systems are organised because there is a real danger if one is mixed with the other that people are given a little inviolability or they are put in double jeopardy or the possibility of a successful prosecution is made more difficult afterwards.

We have a problem in our society of how to get at the truth. I prefer to go down the avenue of criminal investigation and prosecution and that is why I am glad the Minister has sent the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, behind all this is a huge mountain of suffering which is continuing for people. I welcome the approach adopted by the Minister as it is time to go the extra mile for those who have suffered. The last thing we want is to be penny pinching with these people. They have suffered long and grievously and if money can ameliorate or improve their circumstances the State should provide it. We should also try to establish the facts of the cases but, above all, we should learn from what happened.

I commend the general trend of Senator Ryan's remarks. When people are appointed to boards, they are not there as ornaments. They are there to protect the public interest and to ensure policies are formulated with professional advice and the professional staffs involved are answerable in an open and transparent manner. If we can learn that from this tribunal, it will be something. We must wait for the next stage to unfold and, in general terms, I support the motion. I also support the approach the Minister is taking. We should be grateful to him for taking the responsibility to apologise to people for a grievous wrong that was done to them.