The Irish Blood Transfusion Service will today reject charges by one of its officials that it misled an Oireachtas committee.
The organisation's regional director, Dr Joan Power, has repeatedly condemned its decision to transfer blood testing from the Cork branch to Dublin. She says a decision to centralise operations in Dublin had been made before the organisation's board met to consider the matter formally in March 1999.
Leading figures from the organisation will today defend their decision before the Joint Committee on Health and Children,
In a letter to the chairman of the committee, Mr Batt O'Keeffe, on February 21st, the organisation said it was not aware how it might have misled the committee. Its medical director, Dr William Murphy, said it needed further details about the charges made last October by Dr Power before it could adequately rebut them.
"As you will appreciate, any contention that senior officers of a semi-state body misled a relevant Oireachtas Committee . . . is a serious matter."
