Row over hepatitis C victims bill

NEW legislation designed to end a nine-year battle between victims of blood bank blunders and the State has provoked a major row between Health Minister Mary Harney and people inadvertently infected with hepatitis C and HIV.

The bill, which proposes subsidised insurance for those infected with contaminated blood products administered by the State, is due to go before the Dáil this morning. It contains measures which would allow those affected by the blood scandals to obtain life assurance and travel insurance on the same basis as healthy policy holders.

Many of those affected by the contamination scandals of the 1970s and 1980s have been turned down by insurance companies or quoted prohibitively high premiums, leaving some unable to obtain mortgages.