THE intervention of three Fine Gael backbench TDs influenced the Minister for Health in drafting an amendment to allow hepatitis C victims retain anonymity at the tribunal of inquiry and ensure all Government Departments and State agencies co operate with it.
The former Fine Gael leader, Mr Alan Dukes, Mr Alan Shatter and Ms Frances Fitzgerald all informed the Government Chief Whip, Mr Jim Higgins, yesterday that they approved the substance of amendments tabled by Fianna Fail's health spokeswoman, Ms Maire Geoghegan Quinn.
Mr Shatter subsequently made it clear to the Dail during the debate on the motion to establish the tribunal that he would have great difficulty voting down her proposals. Mr Dukes also said he "fully supported" Ms Geoghegan Quinn's suggestion that an explicit instruction be given to all Government agencies and Departments to collaborate with the tribunal.
Government sources last night played down the significance of the TDs' interventions, saying that, while they had stated their case in strong terms, the Minister was willing to amend the terms of reference in any event.
Mr Noonan and his officials completed an amendment while the debate was still in progress. It was then supported by all Government deputies present.
The amendment states: "It is the wish of Dail Eireann that all Department and State agency employees should give their full cooperation to the tribunal and its inquiries' and that all requested documents and information be provided."
It also says the Minister will inform the tribunal chairman, the former Chief Justice, Mr Thomas Finlay, that "it is the desire of the House" that the anonymity of the hepatitis C victims who come before the tribunal be preserved "if they so wish, in so far as that may be possible The amendment will be inserted at the end of the tribunal's terms of reference, which were announced earlier this week. A Fianna Fail attempt to have the terms of the tribunal extended to allow an investigation of the State's legal defence in the McCole case failed.
The motion to set up the judicial inquiry was approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas yesterday, and Mr Finlay is to begin, work on the tribunal immediately, at a venue yet to be selected. However, the first oral bearing is not expected for several weeks.
The tribunal's first task will be the examination of documentation. Legal counsel must then be appointed to represent the patties involved and, according to sources, the tribunal chairman will decide if individuals, as opposed to groups representing victims, can be awarded separate representation.
Despite lengthy Dail discussion on the hepatitis C scandal over the past two days, Ms Geoghegan Quinn said that key questions remained to be answered as well as those posed by the family of Mrs Brigid McCole.
She asked who authorised the legal strategy followed by the defendants in Mrs McCole's legal action and what had led to the BTSB's admission of liability.
She also demanded to know why Mr Noonan or his Minister of State, Mr Brian O'Shea, had not looked at the crucial 1976 file which was discovered during preparatory work in Mrs McCole's case. That file established that the BTSB knew in 1976 that Donor X had infectious hepatitis.