Blood scandal - Companies must pay for their actions

IF the Government fails to take legal action against American companies which supplied the contaminated blood products that resulted in people being infected with hepatitis C and HIV, it will be shirking its responsibility towards the many victims whose lives have been destroyed, as well as the country’s taxpayers, who face a €900 million compensation bill.

Reflecting the indecision which has generally characterised this administration, the Coalition has yet to take the initiative by aggressively pursuing the commercial groups which, unfortunately with the aid of the State-run blood transfusion agency, supplied this country with contaminated blood products.

By any yardstick, the blood scandal is the darkest chapter in the history of a healthcare system more reminiscent of a Third World regime than one of Europe’s richest nations.