THE Irish Haemophilia Society (IRS) has criticised the terms of preference of the tribunal of inquiry into the hepatitis C scandal.
The terms, announced by the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, on Tuesday, have been broadly welcomed by other groups representing women infected by contaminated anti D and people, infected through transfusions.
However, the IRS described the terms of reference as restrictive. "There is no mention in the terms of reference of the blood products used on a daily basis by people with haemophilia which have infected those people with hepatitis C and other viruses. There is also no mention in the terms of reference to the specific issues relating to these products."
The IRS said the tribunal would not look at the incident in 1982 when blood concentrates obtained from paid donors were imported by the BTSB and resulted in the death of haemophiliac patients from HIV infection.
The terms do not include a 1986 incident, the IRS said, when the BTSB was not heat treating Factor IX concentrates derived from Irish plasma although it was internationally accepted practice to do so. Factor IX is a clotting agent given to haemophiliac patients to treat bleeding crises.
And in 1990 "a hepatitis A outbreak occurred within the haemophilia community of unexplained origins".
The IHS said there was a "failure by the Government authorities to recognise that the present hepatitis C outbreak occurred and affected amongst others blood transfusion recipients, antiD recipients, factor concentrate recipients equally. Each hepatitis' C sufferer is entitled to know what went wrong.
The IRS said the terms should be expanded to include:
. all aspects of donor selection procedures;
. records maintained by the BTSB on the source of blood and plasma;
. the BTSB's communication record in dealing with various viral infection disasters;
. the BTSB's recall and tracing policy;
. the failure of the BTSB to introduce a plasma quarantine period;
. the criteria used by the BTSB to select blood products;
. the exchange of medical knowledge between different committees within the BTSB.
"If this tribunal of inquiry fails to address these relevant and wide ranging issues, then we will have missed the only opportunity - available to ensure blood safety for future generations," the IHS said.