There is a danger that the inquiry into organ retention may not be able to complete its work, according to the campaigning body, Parents for Justice.
The support group for families who discovered their deceased children's organs had been retained without consent said yesterday it had legal advice that the inquiry, chaired by Ms Anne Dunne SC, could be affected by the Supreme Court judgment in the Abbeylara case.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court found that an Oireachtas committee could not conduct an inquiry where that might lead to adverse findings of fact against citizens which would impugn their good name. This followed a challenge to a joint Oireachtas sub-committee inquiring into the shooting dead by members of the Garda of John Carthy in Abbeylara.
The spokeswoman for the group, Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly, said at a press conference yesterday: "We are concerned that the outcome of the judgment will be somewhat restricted. Parents for Justice extended their co-operation to the present non-statutory Dunne inquiry on the strength of the proposed statutory powers that would follow an Oireachtas inquiry."
Such powers included those of compellability and discoverability, she said. The group had been persuaded to co-operate with the Dunne inquiry because it was assured the inquiry would have such powers in phase two of its operation.
Phase one entailed the collection of facts in private. The group feared that doctors and health professionals would seek immunity at this stage but had been assured that no individual or group, apart from Ms Dunne herself, had got such immunity. Ms Dunne's immunity relates to her right to name any individuals or organisations who refused to co-operate with, or obstructed, the inquiry.
The group had understood that, following the collating of facts, a report would be prepared by Ms Dunne and that this would be considered by the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in phase two of the inquiry.
Last April, Parents for Justice had met the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to relay their concerns about the implications of the Supreme Court judgment. They had been told that the Attorney General was reviewing the impact of this judgment on Oireachtas committees' powers to investigate and inquire, and assured that the review would be completed "within weeks". However, the review still remained to be completed.
If it found the Oireachtas committee could not complete phase two, with the powers of discoverability and compellability, Parents for Justice would be pressing for an inquiry with full statutory powers, according to Ms O'Reilly.
She added that, since the inquiry began in March 2001, the parents who had attended preliminary oral hearings had been satisfied with the proceedings to date.
Almost 2,000 parents of children whose organs were retained following post-mortems have registered with the group. Almost 200 of its members are people who have had the organs of adult relatives retained without consent.