A group representing women infected with hepatitis C through the anti-D blood product in years outside those investigated by the Finlay tribunal last night called for an independent investigation into what occurred.
The call from Positive Action came as the findings of an investigation by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service into the infections was being sent to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
The chairwoman of Positive Action, Ms Detta Warnock, said she had no interest in the report as it had been carried out by an official of the IBTS. "Our confidence in the blood bank is long since battered, so an investigation by one of their own is certainly not what we want," she said.
She called again for an independent investigation.
Anti-D, a blood product given to some women at childbirth, infected some 1,200 women in the State with hepatitis C between the mid-1970s and early 1990s.
The blood bank used the plasma of about 14 donors to make anti-D during those years and it accepted during the Finlay tribunal that two of the donors, known as donor X and donor Y, had caused infections between 1977-1979 and 1991-1994.
However, Positive Action and Transfusion Positive, which also represents infected women, claim some of their members were infected in other years and believe some of the other 12 donors could have had hepatitis C and passed on their infection through anti-D.
The IBTS deputy medical director, Dr Emer Lawlor, has investigated these claims, and it is her report that has been sent to Mr Martin.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said when he had studied the lengthy document he would contact Positive Action and Transfusion Positive. They would be given copies of the report, she said.