RECIPIENTS of 11 blood donations from HIV-infected donors have been difficult to trace, the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, told the Dail.
Twenty-five blood donors have tested positive for HIV since screening was introduced in 1985, he said. Eight of the 25 were first-time donors and so no risk of HIV transmission to recipients was involved, he told the Fianna Fail spokesman on health, Mr Brian Cowen.
Recipients of potentially infected "issues" from 10 of the remaining 17 donors were traced and none tested positive. Mr Noonan said there had been great difficulty in tracing recipients of the other seven donors. This was because of the absence of dispatch records in the period prior to 1986.
Mr Noonan said there would be "modest slices" in health service funding to pay for the agreement, reached in the nurses' pay dispute which will cost £80 million in total to implement.
The reduction agreed in the health allocation will be met through increased efficiency measures and other marginal adjustments spread over a number, of programmes, he said during questions to the Minister.
Mr Cowen called for no cutbacks in the provision of funding for cancer, child care and the mentally handicapped, particularly given the murders of two women in Grangegorman.
Mr Noonan said that there would be no reduction in the £25 million development fund programme in respect of child care, care of the handicapped and the cancer programme. Health services would be at 1996 levels, the Minister said.
In a question on mandatory reporting of child abuse, Ms Liz O'Donnell, the Progressive Democrats spokeswoman on health, put it to the Minister that the State's protection of children "is in fact less instead of greater" in light of the Government's decision not to proceed with mandatory reporting. She said many health care professionals were afraid to report suspected abuse because of fears of libel actions by those accused of such abuse.
Mr Noonan pointed out that the consensus view of professionals was against mandatory reporting, and that a number of submissions to the consultation process suggested that sight should not be lost of a person's right to his or her good name. The Department had set out instead to strengthen the framework, and a series of initiatives were published to best promote the rights of children.
He said legal indemnity was something which would continue to concern the Government. The Minister of State, Mr Austin Currie, would look at the initiatives being put in place and "if following this evaluation, it is clear that the introduction of mandatory reporting would be in the best interests of children", then the necessary legislation would be introduced.