Sir, - The patronising attitude of Government TDs, particularly the women, to the Hepatitis C scandal is sickening. I was one of the hundreds of women affected and one of those who attended the Dail debate last Tuesday and Wednesday, June 11th and 12th. One commentator in more than correct in his assessment that this is the greatest scandal to hit the State since its foundation.
1. The Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, is in the dock. We, the Hepatitis C women, are not the guilty ones. Yet we are made feel like that.
2. Women are being pressurised into applying to a tribunal before all the relevant facts - emerge in a High Court case.
3. How can a woman TD, who has tested negative to Hepatitis C, stand up and say that she knows how we, those who have tested positive, feel?
4. How can this woman TD keep mentioning her four healthy children when some" of the women's children have tested positive and others have not been tested for fear it might stand against them in insurance and mortgage policies.
It was women generally who elected female Government TDs, and the first chance they have got to vote on a very important issue affecting women's rights they have left them down. Can we believe women TDs, some of whom have been tested for Hepatitis C, when they say they will champion women's rights? When they ignore the women who voted for them, their promises ring very hollow.
Are they afraid of their male Whips? What about the transparency, accountability and openness promised by the Taoiseach?
Let's not forget - it is not so long to the next election when these women TDs will be on our doorsteps, begging for votes. - Yours, etc.,
Dublin 24.