Hepatitis bill could exclude 15,000 victims

TÁNAISTE and Health Minister Mary Harney yesterday defended the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal legislation which will allow people infected by contaminated blood products to gain access to life assurance.

The bill passed all stages in the Dáil yesterday, despite repeated opposition claims that the standard test will exclude victims of bad blood products who show low levels of antibodies.

But the minister stood over the legislation — and its exclusion of a potential 15,000 people who received the blood products — on the basis that an upper limit had to be imposed as regards State exposure to compensation claims.