THE Cabinet has given the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, clearance to send the Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Blood Transfusions Services Board to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Speaking at a press conference at the publication of the report yesterday, Mr Noonan emphasised repeatedly that the tribunal had found all allegations and charges against him did not "stand up".
Mr Noonan said the results of the investigation "into one of the worst public health scandals in the history of the State" would be with the DPP by today.
"They thought it was the appropriate thing to do and they are not making any judgemental statement because it is for the DPP to decide matters regarding prosecutions," the Minister said.
The Government had also decided to accept all the report's recommendations, the principal one being the closure of Pelican House and the transfer of the BTSB headquarters to one of the main teaching hospitals. The Cabinet had agreed the blood services should move to St James's Hospital, a development which will have a capital cost of £15 million, the Minister said.
He and Mr Howlin were the only two Ministers to appear before the tribunal. He understood that "the thinking behind this" lay in the fact that the scandal only became public in 1994. What was at issue was how they had acted as ministers in supervising the strategies which would alleviate the problem and put facilities in place for the victims, he said.
Vigorously defending himself against "a series of allegations that had been made against him in the Dail and the media, Mr Noonan said the most serious charge focused on the discovery of a file in the BTSB. The claim was that this file was of great importance and had new information which, in effect, "undermined the expert group's conclusions".
The second charge, made by many people, asserted that he had "covered up, somehow or other", this file (and that he should have immediately instigated a judicial inquiry into the entire affair). The third allegation suggested he and the Minister of State Mr Brian O'Shea had misled the Dail, he added.
However, the tribunal did not agree with these allegations. It had, in fact, concluded that the discovered file did not constitute new fundamental medical evidence "and did not form the foundation of any particular conclusion which would not have been reached without them in regard to the general wrongdoing of the use of the plasma of Patient X".
The tribunal also found that, in March 1996, the Minister's decision not to set up a new inquiry - as a result of the discovery of the file - was "an adequate and appropriate reaction to the facts as they were known", Mr Noonan said. According to the report, both he and Mr O'Shea were "correct" in what they told the Dail, he added.
He was cleared "on the four charges that were laid against me consistently in the media, in the Dail and everywhere else to the degree that in the minds of the public and in conventional wisdom, they were no longer allegations - they were established facts". Serious commentators had "run" lines as fact rather than allegation.
He had also been criticised at the establishment of the compensation tribunal but the report had found that it constituted a "reasonable, adequate and appropriate" response by him.
Mr Noonan cited other criticisms levelled against him, including appointments to the BTSB, but the report had found his actions were correct. It also found that the health-care package he introduced was appropriate and he had acted speedily with the NDAB by setting up the Irish Medicines Board.
The "only criticism" of him in the conclusions of the tribunal re to the slow process through the Dail of legislation introducing the health-care package.
"That is the only conclusion which criticises my actions as Minister for Health in any way."
Asked why the tribunal had not dealt with the way in which the State and the BTSB had fought a legal battle against the Donegal woman, Mrs Brigid McCole, right up to her death, Mr Noonan said it was not possible for the Houses of the Oireachtas to institute a tribunal to adjudicate on the manner in which the courts conduct their business.
Mr Noonan expressed deep sympathy with the family of the late Mrs McCole as well as all the other victims and their families.
The former health minister, Mr Brendan Howlin, whose tenure in office was scrutinised by the tribunal, described it as "balanced and fair" but Fianna Fail said it disagreed with some of Mr Justice Finlay's findings.
In a statement following its publication, Mr Howlin, now the Minister for the Environment, said that a number of criticisms had been levelled at his handling of this crisis, both at the tribunal and in the media.
"The report is critical of the Department and myself as Minister on three issues", he stated. "These relate to the recall of the product, the advice of the group of hepatologists to the Department regarding referral criteria and the delay in putting independent counselling in place.
"With the benefit of hindsight, I accept that these are valid criticisms," Mr Howlin said. He added: "With the exception of the three specific points of criticism set out above, the report has found the range of actions I undertook as Minister under the above headings to have been appropriate.
"I am personally relieved that this report has largely endorsed the handling of this unprecedented crisis by both Minister Noonan and myself."
Fianna Fail said its disagreements with some of the conclusions in the report would be addressed in the Dail debate next week. Attempts by Mr Noonan and Mr Howlin to claim vindication were "premature", the Fianna Fail spokesman on health, Mr Brian Cowen, said. Most of the people criticised in the tribunal's report had already walked off the stage without paying any personal price, the Progressive Democrats' spokeswoman, Senator Cathy Honan, said.