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QUESTION: Yes. So as we've seen, there is a query from the Minister about w hen heat treatment is likely to be ready. A further minute is provided f rom Mr Morison on 26 November 1984 . I won't go to it now but it outlines developments in trials of heat treatment of PFC 21 September 2022 ...
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QUESTION: I hope that the documents we're about to look at will help our understanding of the knowledge of Scottish officials on that particular issue. The time the Minister was briefed, w ould appear to be , the 80 Minister in Scotland, 21 March 1985. I'll also come to that -- ANSWER: Well, that's -- y...
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QUESTION: Yes . ANSWER: About 2 0 November, I think. And if that is so, then what you're telling me at the moment, or what you've told me, you're summarising -- you're moving toward, I appreciate, to 1985, but you are summarising the knowledge they had been developing in the Department in Scotland in the summ...
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QUESTION: Most of the documents at least that we've summarised in the written note, and it may be that we can look at this furthe r, seems to suggest a fairly high level state of knowledge . There's one document which might help , sir , from August 1984 , which I could bring up now which give s some...
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QUESTION: Lawrence , it's SCGV0000147 _ 079. ANSWER: You mean_079?
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QUESTION: I'm sorry, _079 is what I mean, yes. S ir, it's a 16 August 1984 minute from Dr Bell to Mr Murray in the Department , and it's titled "Testing of blood donation of AIDS" . Dr Bell said this: "I have information that research and development work in London is proceeding with the objective of introd...
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QUESTION: Not that I can recall off the top of my head, sir. We will double check and find out if there are any references to that article. I can put it this way: it sounds like the sort of article that I would have picked up and included in this section of the written note if it had been referred to, but we will...
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QUESTION: Sir, if you do want to get a clearer picture of this time period in the second half of 1984 and what the understanding of SHHD officials was, it may be worth looking briefly at a December 1984 SNBTS directors ' meeting which was attended by officials from the Home and Health Department where there was an ...
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QUESTION: That's right , sir, yes. ANSWER: That was the 27 November ' 84 meeting he was reporting back on?
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QUESTION: 27 November '84, that's right. We've made reference to a not e of that meeting which Dr McClelland believes he prepared, although I think it's not very 84 clear from the document itself he prepared it, but Dr McClelland believe s he prepared that document, which recorded that he could get n...
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QUESTION: Very briefly , the response from Mr MacKay to Mr Macpherson's submission, PRSE0000850. Sir, not the easiest document to decipher immediately. The date of this is 22 March 1985. We get that from about the middle of this page. It refers at the bottom to Mr Macpherson's minute of 21 March , and inc...
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QUESTION: Roughly , I would say about ten minutes or so, I'd hope. ANSWER: Right, okay . Let's do that at 2.00 , shall we ?
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QUESTION: Thank you, sir . ANSWER: So 2.00. (12.58 pm) (The Luncheon Adjournment) (2.00 pm)
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QUESTION: Sir , the last document we looked at on the introduction of HTLV-III screening was from March 1985 and it was that ministerial submission. I'm going to move forward to late June 1985 , when a further update, 95 albeit a brief one, was provided to the Minister . We can see that in the following do...
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QUESTION: Sir, I'm going to continue with documents relating to the HIV Litigation in Scotland and I'm going to pick matters up shortly after the correspondence we looked at before the break, a minute dated 8 February 1991 from Mr Tucker to the Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. The reference is SCGV00002...
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QUESTION: Of course. Back to page 24, please. ANSWER: Thank you. Thank you .
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QUESTION: And if we go back to page 27, please, Lawrence, schedule 4 . Here we have the undertaking to be given by a qualifying person in Scotland to receive payment from this Trust. The second half of the page, please. I won't go through all the detail but I'm going to pick out few references. Paragraph 1: "I h...
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QUESTION: Yes . ANSWER: The waiver, so far as it related to England and Northern Ireland, et cetera, was a waiver which in terms, as I read it on the screen, that the proceedings were not related to the spread of or spreading of HIV or hepatitis viruses. This is rather different because it doesn't mention the ...
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QUESTION: Sir, you're right that on their face those two different versions of this waiver ... ANSWER: Yes, so you say this waiver, there are two different waivers. They may come to the same effect but the one is in respect of the spreading of , any allegation about the spread of, which is peculiarly vague...
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QUESTION: Time to consider it, sir . ANSWER: Thank you .
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QUESTION: That sounds to me like one of the issues which should and could sensibly be addressed in the addendum notes that we are intending to disclose . Looking at those differences in the wording of these waivers, the extent to which their legal effect changed as a result of that different wording, " spread " ...
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QUESTION: I think that will be another one to address in the notes, sir . ANSWER: In due course, very well .
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QUESTION: In due course. It's certainly the case that we can see in the documents referred to in the current presentation note that we have, that the Scottish lawyers who were involved in trying to reach agreement on settlement terms in Scotland were alive to differences between England and Wales and Scotland on i...
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QUESTION: Sir, we'll seek to bottom out some of those differences that I've described and that you've alighted on. For today's purposes, we can turn next to the formal offer that was made by the Scottish Office to solicitors representing litigants in Scotland to settle the litigation, which took place nearly two mo...
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QUESTION: Sir, tomorrow we return with a witness who will be attending remotely, John Canavan, an official from the Department of Health. ANSWER: So John Canavan tomorrow at 10.00. 10.00. Thank you very much. (4.20 pm) (The hearing adjourned until 10.00 am the following day) 21 September 2022 ...
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QUESTION: And you've held that position since 2006? ANSWER: Correct.
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QUESTION: But your involvement with the Irish Haemophilia Society dates back to the early 1980s? ANSWER: 1982.
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QUESTION: And you've been on the board since 1982 other than for a brief period in around 2003-04? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: You were chairman of the Irish Haemophilia Society between 1987 and 2003? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: Between 1994 and 2004 you were president of the World Federation of Haemophilia? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And between 2011 and 2019 you were president of the European Haemophilia Consortium? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: You yourself have severe haemophilia B? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And you're a medical laboratory scientist by background and training? ANSWER: Correct.
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QUESTION: And that's the capacity in which you worked until 1994? ANSWER: Correct.
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QUESTION: You've sat on multiple committees and boards relating to haemophilia including, for a period of time, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service board? ANSWER: I still sit on that board, in fact.
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QUESTION: You've set those out in your witness statement in paragraph 3; I'm not going to go through them all but there is a significant number in terms of your involvement. In relation to previous inquiries, you gave evidence at the Institute of Medicine Inquiry in the USA in 1994? ANSWER: That's correct.
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QUESTION: And what, in very broad terms, was the nature of your evidence? ANSWER: The nature of my evidence at the IoM Inquiry was related, entirely, to the response of governments outside the US
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QUESTION: And then you gave information to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1995 in the course of a -- ANSWER: That's correct.
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QUESTION: -- of a visit that was taking place in Canada not for that purpose? ANSWER: That's correct.
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QUESTION: You were involved in the Finlay and the Lindsay Tribunals of Inquiry in Ireland. Just so that we understand the difference between the two: the Finlay Tribunal focused on infection through anti-D and also blood transfusion; the Lindsay Inquiry looked at the infection of people with haemophilia? ANSWER: That...
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QUESTION: And you gave evidence to the Lindsay Tribunal twice? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And you then gave evidence to the non-statutory inquiry, the Archer Inquiry, in this country? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: I'm not going to ask you in any detail about your work in Ireland in the 1980s and '90s, but just so that we can understand the position of the Irish Haemophilia Society at that time, it was, as I understand it from your statement, a very small voluntary organisation and in the early '80s it didn't have an o...
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QUESTION: And it was, I think, 1987 before there was any kind of staff member at all? ANSWER: We had a part-time member of staff, two mornings a week from 1987 and our first full-time staff member in 1989.
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QUESTION: Then I just wanted to ask you briefly about your own knowledge of AIDS back in the 1980s and how you came to be aware of the possibility of a risk of transmission through blood or blood products. Your statement indicates that that came to the attention of the Haemophilia Society in Ireland in 1983? ANSWER: C...
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QUESTION: And you yourself learnt about it through reading an article in a laboratory magazine? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: So through your own scientific work? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: Do you have any recollection of roughly when in 1983 that might have been? ANSWER: March or April of 1983.
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QUESTION: Then it was, I think, following a newspaper article,and you've referred, I think, in your statement to the "killer blood" article, which I think dates it, for our purposes, to the Mail on Sunday article at the beginning of May '83. You then had a meeting with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service? ANSWER: Tha...
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QUESTION: There was a suggestion that you discuss the issue with someone you've described in your witness statement as the "treating consultant". Would it be right to understand that's Professor Temperley that you were talking about there? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: Again, just so that others can understand your statement, what was his role? ANSWER: Professor Temperley was the national haemophilia director, so he was the director of the main National Haemophilia Treatment Centre in Dublin at the time. The discussions I had were with Sean Hanratty, who was the chief scie...
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QUESTION: In your witness statement, if we just have it up on screen. WITN7418001, please, Lawrence, and if we could go to page 5. If we pick it up, top of the page, this is paragraph 7 of your statement, you've said -- ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: "In his replies to us ..." And the context in the previous paragraph was the discussions you've referred to in 1983. "... the treating consultant pointed out that all blood products could potentially cause AIDS or non A non B Hepatitis, and that the risk of bleeding was much greater than the risk from any vi...
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QUESTION: Then just one other request for clarification from your statement. If we go over the page to page 6, please. Paragraph 9, you report that:"In December 1984 we had the first diagnosis of AIDS in an Irish person with haemophilia." ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And then this: "The indication from the treating consultant at that time was that this may be the only case of AIDS we would see in a person with haemophilia and that perhaps only 1% of those who were HIV positive would go on to develop AIDS." Do you know whether any reason was given for that rather optimist...
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QUESTION: Can I then just ask you, in terms of the numbers of people with haemophilia in Ireland and numbers infected, if we look at a document you've exhibited to your statement -- it's WITN7418004 -- we can see it's entitled "AIDS, Haemophilia and the Government, A submission from the Irish Haemophilia Society calli...
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QUESTION: Third paragraph: "Of the 296 Haemophiliacs registered in Ireland. "- 265 have been tested for exposure to HIV. "- 106 have been infected with HIV ... "- 9 have developed 'full blown' AIDS. "- 4 [by that time] have died. "- 70% of severe Haemophilia A patients have been infected." So the 296 haemophiliacs re...
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QUESTION: Then we have the figures there, 106 infected with HIV, so 40 per cent. Does that remain the figure, as far as you know, of the numbers infected with HIV? ANSWER: Yes, yes.
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QUESTION: Then in terms of the numbers infected with hepatitis C, do you have any knowledge of what proportion were infected with hepatitis C? ANSWER: We're talking about 240, 245 people.
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QUESTION: Okay. So a very significant proportion? ANSWER: Yes, but also that would have encompassed a number of people with mild haemophilia as well.
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QUESTION: Understood. We can take that down, thank you. I want to ask you now, Brian, about some of the measures that have been put in place, over the decades in Ireland, to address the needs and the circumstances of those who were infected through contaminated blood and blood products. The purpose, as I know you un...
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QUESTION: That resulted in the submission that we looked at briefly -- ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: -- a couple of minutes ago? ANSWER: Correct.
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QUESTION: The argument that was being made at that point in time, as I understand it, was that there was a moral responsibility on the Government to respond to the situation of those who had been infected, through no fault of their own, with HIV? ANSWER: Yes. 12
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QUESTION: That wasn't accepted by the Government to start with and the Society embarked upon a public and political campaign? ANSWER: I mean, when you say it wasn't accepted, all we received, actually, was an acknowledgement of receipt of the document and then five months of silence. And despite the fact I was naive ...
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QUESTION: Now, that resulted, eventually, in an agreement which led to the establishment of the Haemophilia HIV Trust? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: Did you -- what was your understanding of what ultimately persuaded the Government to accede to that? ANSWER: Well, the fact that the political media campaign was very successful, we got a lot of traction, a lot of media coverage, we had some of our members with HIV who spoke publicly and very bravely to hig...
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QUESTION: Now, initially, that trust paid regular payments, so from about 1987 to 1991 there was some regular payments? ANSWER: 1989 to 1991, it was established in '89. We made regular payments to some individuals, not to all individuals. It was very much based on an assessment of individual need and people's indivi...
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QUESTION: Those are the ex gratia payments, essentially, from 1991? ANSWER: Yes, yes.
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QUESTION: We'll pick up those in a moment. If we then -- just staying with the Haemophilia HIV Trust, from 1991 onwards it was one-off payments? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: So it might be for funeral grants or equipment, those kinds of -- ANSWER: Yes. Hospital beds, wheelchairs, any -- special mattresses, anything that would be required by the person with HIV or AIDS to help them to deal with the condition or -- and certainly one-off items which would not easily be provided, i...
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QUESTION: And what you've told us in your statement is that the way it was designed to operate was that it didn't have overly complex procedures, or requirements for lots of different types of proof. The individual would communicate with the trust, it might be by letter or by telephone, and a decision would be made a...
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QUESTION: Now, in 2002 there were further payments made, we'll come on to that, but the Tribunal that had been set up 16in relation to hepatitis C was extended to cover HIV? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And as a result there was a decision that needed to be made about the future of the Haemophilia HIV Trust? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: As I understand it, the decision was taken through consultation with those who had been infected; is that right -- with a range of beneficiaries? ANSWER: Yes, we organised a meeting with as many of those as possible who survived with HIV and we asked them -- you know, at that point there wasn't an enormous a...
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QUESTION: That's the way in which it has continued to operate, again, through -- it continues, is this right, to make one-off -- ANSWER: Yes, yes.
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QUESTION: -- payments? Again, it might be for equipment or -- you refer to Christmas payments? ANSWER: Yes, we also look very carefully at, you know, the people's individual circumstances, and we make 17a number of payments at Christmas each year to individuals who we believe are still in particu...
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QUESTION: And there was a top-up of the amount that the trust had in 2006? ANSWER: Yes, yes.
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QUESTION: EUR 300,000? ANSWER: Yes, that's right.
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QUESTION: The trust was chaired initially by one High Court judge and then since then has been chaired by another High Court judge? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: You tell us in your statement that they had met with a lot of those who were infected, but, you know, they also made themselves known to the community? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: Is that right? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And how important has that been? ANSWER: Both Judge Carroll and latterly Judge Murphy, we had several meetings with the members who had HIV to hear about their concerns and their issues, and also both chairs of the trust would usually attend our annual conference for the full weekend and meet members and jus...
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QUESTION: And you were asked in your statement if you thought that the HIV -- the Haemophilia HIV Trust, the HHT, had been successful, and you've told us in your statement that you think it has been, its objectives were met, and you've identified three factors: trustees acting with empathy and understanding; the abili...
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QUESTION: Is that right? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: So that's the HHT. ANSWER: Mm.
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QUESTION: Now, the second main plank of financial support for those who were infected is the compensation tribunal, and so I just wanted to ask you a little about how that -- ANSWER: There was the earlier 1991 -- (overspeaking) --
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QUESTION: I'm sorry, yes -- ANSWER: -- as well, yes.
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QUESTION: Yes. Yes, let's pick that up. So there was litigation in Ireland in the same way as we know that there was litigation -- 19ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: -- in the United Kingdom, which was settled in 1991; is that correct? ANSWER: That's correct. We employed a legal team from 1989 and worked with them and we were looking at the Society actually funding a test case. But as this was going on and on through the course of 1990, it became apparent this was not ...
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QUESTION: That resulted in what I think you've described as tiered payments -- ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: -- in a way that's a similar but not identical, but similar to the way in which it was done in the United Kingdom? 20ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: So if we look by at your statement, please. WITN7418001, page 24. It's paragraph 43, and you've set out in the previous paragraphs the process of the litigation, the campaign and so on. ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: "We secured an improved offer of £8 million, to be paid quickly and with no £1 million claw back." That was a clawback of what had been paid to the HHT, was it? ANSWER: Originally the Government offer was 7 million, and from that 7 they also wanted to claw back the 1 million paid to the HHT in 1996, and they...
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QUESTION: Then we can see the figures that were agreed there. 21ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: So a married man with children, 101,000; widow, 93,000; married man with no children, 89,000; single adult or child, £76,000; infected spouse, 25,000, although there were in fact none; and then non-dependent relatives of a deceased man, 21,000. So if we look at the position as at the end of 1991, you have th...
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QUESTION: Then you have the operation of the HHT? ANSWER: The HHT, yes.
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QUESTION: Now, as your statement then describes to us, what then came to the forefront was the position of those who had been infected with hepatitis C? ANSWER: Yes.
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QUESTION: And you described that particularly coming to your attention in I think, 1993, when there were 23discussions about the availability of Interferon and, indeed, people being charged for treatment with Interferon? ANSWER: That's correct. Obviously, when the hepatitis C virus was identified in 1989, it bec...
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QUESTION: If we could just put your statement back on screen, sorry, Lawrence, 7418001, and go to page 25. In paragraph 46 you say this: "Following many discussions, it became clear that the Department of Health were willing to concede in principle on the issue of compensation." Then you go on to talk about how the T...