Hep C victims to wait for compo ruling

HEPATITIS C victims must wait to find out if they can appeal compensation tribunal awards to the High Court in a legal challenge that could leave the State open to multi-million euro claims.

The Supreme Court yesterday reserved judgment on a test case to determine whether the High Court was correct last year in deciding that a man who accepted an award from the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal could belatedly appeal that award to the High Court.

The outcome of the case is awaited by other hepatitis C victims, who similarly accepted awards from the tribunal in the past but now say the sums they received were not sufficient.