Lindsay Tribunal to wrap up today

The Lindsay Tribunal, which is investigating the infection of Irish haemophiliacs with contaminated blood products supplied by the State, is expected to finish its work this afternoon.

Tribunal chairperson Alison Lindsay has been hearing evidence about the scandal since 1999 and will now decide on what recommendations to make in her final report.

Judge Lindsay must decide whether the Blood Transfusion Service deliberately tried to conceal the facts about the scandal, whether it made decisions that harmed patients because of financial considerations and why the State failed on numerous occasions to meet the needs of those infected.

The Lindsay Tribunal was established to investigate the infection of 252 Irish haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products imported from the US by the BTS in the 1980s.

The tribunal has heard that medical experts throughout the world were aware that these products were manufactured from blood taken from impoverished people in the US, many of whom had infectious diseases.

Seventy-eight Irish haemophiliacs have died because of the contamination, six of them since the Lindsay Tribunal began its work two years ago.