THERE were heated exchanges when the Taoiseach rejected Opposition claims that the Minister for Health was refusing to answer a series of written questions on the hepatitis C controversy. The House will debate the issue today and tomorrow.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, challenged the Order of Business, claiming that the questions submitted to Mr Noonan were ruled out of order on the basis that they had anticipated a Private Members' debate. But there could not be a meaningful debate without the questions being comprehensively replied to, he added.
Mr Bruton said that decisions on allowing questions were not made by the Government but by the Ceann Comhairle.
Mr Ahern said the Taoiseach and anybody else who had been a minister knew exactly the procedure and how questions could be disallowed. "I am not going to sit here and see the Ceann Comhairle's office take the blame."
The Leas Cheann Combairle, Mr Joe Jacob, insisted that it was the Chair's function to disallow questions.
Mr Ahern said the Taoiseach had a "questions disallowed coordinator" in his office, which was a new government post. This was later denied by Mr Bruton.
The Taoiseach said it was entirely wrong for Mr Ahern to suggest that Mr Noonan or any other member of the Government had sought to have the questions blocked. The Minister had said he was willing to answer all questions, and if the Opposition wanted the answers to the written questions, they would be provided later in the day.
He warned Mr Ahern that he was "skating on thin ice" when suggesting that the Ceann Comhairle could in any way be influenced into making a decision on the admissibility of questions.
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said that in opposition the Taoiseach had said that Fine Gael would give the Ceann Comhairle a new power to require ministers to answer questions.
Mr Bruton accused the Opposition of trying to generate heat rather than assisting those who needed to be assisted in finding the truth in a non-partisan and fair way.
To shouts of derision from the Fianna Fail benches, the Taoiseach said he wanted to contrast the Government's behaviour with the refusal of Fianna Fail ministers to answer questions in the House on the beef tribunal when they were in power.
Ms Mary Wallace (FF, Meath) protested at the Taoiseach's linking of the beef tribunal with the hepatitis C controversy. When she refused to resume her seat, Mr Jacob ordered her from the House.
On a division on the Order of Business, the Government won by 67 votes to 54.
When the House resumed, the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Sean Treacy, said that he was the one who had decided to disallow the questions to the Minister.
"No one else was involved. I take no advice from anyone else. It was my decision and mine alone, and any suggestion that I was influenced by anyone else, in the Taoiseach's office or in a ministerial office, or anywhere else, is factually untrue ... and in so far as my integrity and honour are concerned is totally reprehensible to me."
Earlier, the Fianna Fail spokeswoman on health, Mrs Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, sought an emergency debate on "how the Blood Transfusion Service Board [BTSB] withheld information from up to 40 hepatitis C victims for two years, despite the fact that hepatitis C is a life-threatening condition, the implications of this for the ad hoc compensation tribunal, which is continuing to sit, and the urgent necessity for an explanation from the Minister for Health of the continuing cover-up.
When Mr Jacob ruled out a debate under standing orders, Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn remarked: "If the death of women is not a matter that can be considered serious and urgent, particularly when that death has been caused by the poisoning of their system by a state agency under the aegis of the Minister for Health, would you please explain to me what is an urgent and serious matter?"
Mr Jacob pointed out that the matter would be dealt with in the House by way of statements and a question-and-answer session today and a motion setting up the tribunal of inquiry tomorrow.
