The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, has agreed to meet the Irish Haemophilia Society to discuss the possibility of expanding the scope of the Lindsay tribunal to allow overseas drugs companies be investigated.
The meeting, due to take place early next week, follows a request from the IHS to have the terms of the tribunal broadened in light of Judge Alison Lindsay's ruling last July that she was not entitled to probe into certain actions and inactions of drugs firms.
The IHS has warned that if the companies are not investigated the tribunal runs the risk of producing a flawed report. The society has threatened to lobby Opposition politicians for a change in the terms if the Minister does not agree to one.