Parents for Justice (PFJ) has called on the Minister for Health to make an immediate statement on what it termed the "scandal" that has emerged in the past week over the retention of human glands and organs by Irish hospitals for sale to pharmaceutical firms.
At a press conference this afternoon, the support group's spokeswoman, Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly, accused Mr Martin of breaching specific assurances he had given the group on the establishment of the Dunne inquiry into organ retention.
Ms O'Reilly said the minister had assured PFJ members at a meeting four years ago that if the Dunne inquiry failed to meet its objective and that if it encountered any difficulty in terms of co-operation, that he would immediately establish a full, statutory tribunal of inquiry. She said the group had a tape, which it was prepared to release to the media, of the minister's assurances at that meeting.
She accused Mr Martin of "duping" the group and of misleading it when he gave these assurances at that meeting in a Dublin hotel in 2000.
An angry Ms O'Reilly criticised what she said was the Minister's failure to respond in any meaningful way to the events that had unfolded in the past week.
She accused him of "duping" members of Parents for Justice, who she said had been led to believe he cared about their grief.
Ms O'Reilly said Mr Martin had displayed a "Noonanesque-like response" to the revelations which "may well be his political graveyard".
This was a reference to the former Fine Gael health minister, Mr Michael Noonan, who was roundly criticised for his handling of the emerging hepatitis C scandal and the case of Mrs Brigid McCole in the mid-1990s.
The PFJ spokeswoman questioned whether a private, part-time inquiry had been established because the scale of the organ retention issue was known prior to the establishment of the Dunne inquiry headed by lawyer Ms Anne Dunne SC.
In what amounted to an open address to the minister, Ms O'Reilly said it was "appalling" that four days after Parents for Justice had first condemned his lack of response to the issue that it had had to call on him again today.
She accused him of "cheap talk" and said he had "manipulated" PFJ members and grieving families and the general public. She said the scale of this health scandal was "unprecedented".
PFJ said one of its members has now instigated a case against the minister for "breach of legitimate expectation". Ms O'Reilly said she expected the case to come before the High Court before the end of the year.
She told reporters it now appeared, based on the figures that had emerged this week, that at least 180,000 people in the State had been affected by the retention by hospitals of the organs of a family member.
Ms O'Reilly based this on the pharmaceutical firm Nova Nordisk's statement that it was supplied with 7,500 pituitary glands from 32 Irish hospitals.
Just 19 hospitals to date have come forward to admit they retained glands in the 1970s and 1980s. The pituitary glands of children and adults were passed on to drugs companies here and abroad for the manufacture of human growth hormone. The practice stopped in the 1980s after it became possible to synthesise the hormone in a laboratory setting.
The Department of Health and Children is expected to issue a statement shortly. It has already said it did not sanction the harvesting of glands from deceased patients during post-mortem and that it was unaware of the practice until 2000, when the Dunne inquiry into the affair was established.
The Dunne tribunal has said it will not publicly comment on its work, despite the call for a statement from Parents for Justice. The Department of Health has said it now believes it is appropriate that the tribunal chair issue a statement.