Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

Section 2 relates to the issue of consortium. Consortium is defined as "the living together as husband and wife with all that flows from that relationship including companionship, the rendering of services, sexual intercourse and affectionate relationship between spouses". This form of compensation applies in common law to the spouse or partner of the injured party only. It does not have legal application to the injured party. The rights of infected persons, whether young or old, in first or subsequent relationships, are not affected by this section.

Persons who were directly infected with hepatitis C or HIV are compensated at the compensation tribunal in their own right, on the evidence presented, for all the effects of hepatitis C or HIV on their lives, including its effects on their relationships, in the past and into the future. As noted by the Tánaiste, the chairman of the tribunal has confirmed this is the case, and that everyone making a claim to the tribunal has the right to present evidence on all the effects — past, present and future — which infection has had or will have on their lives. It is also worth pointing out that tribunal claimants are represented by experienced and capable legal companies, whose job it is to assist their clients in putting forward to the tribunal a comprehensive and accurate picture of both tangible and intangible losses.

However, it was never the intention to compensate future partners in relationships formed long after their partner's diagnosis with hepatitis C. For a loss to be compensated, the relationship that was lost or damaged must have existed in the first place. A person who forms a long-term partnership with an infected person does so in the knowledge of the diagnosis and the effects this has on their lives. Again, it cannot be reiterated too strongly that the infected person has and will continue to have this taken into account in his or her own compensation award. The younger the sufferer, the more account is taken of the potential effects of the virus on his or her personal relationships.

No partnerships already formed and no applications already submitted to the tribunal will be affected by this legislation. I do not propose to accept this amendment.