The Tribunal of Inquiry into the infection with HIV and hepatitis C of people with haemophilia and related matters was appointed on September 8th, 1999, following resolutions of the Dáil and Seanad in June.
Circuit Court Judge Alison Lindsay was appointed chairwoman and sole member of the tribunal.
Her remit was to investigate how people with haemophilia became infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products supplied by the Blood Transfusion Service Board.
Public hearings began in May 2000 with personal evidence from a number of infected haemophiliacs and from members of their families.
In all, 64 persons gave such personal evidence.
"The feelings of hurt, anger and resentment experienced by infected persons and their families was obvious to the tribunal from their personal testimony", the report states.
"Many felt that they had been let down, had been allowed to become infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C and then were left to cope with the consequences of those infections with little or no adequate support and help from the relevant authorities."
Judge Lindsay concludes in the report: "Their evidence was at times sad, at times tragic and at times harrowing."
The tribunal sat for 196 days and heard oral evidence from 146 witnesses.
It closed on November 28th, 2001.
The tribunal's terms of reference included examination of how blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C were given to haemophiliacs from the mid-1970s onwards.
Other issues included an examination of the adequacy of screening procedures applied by the Blood Transfusion Service Board in relation to donor selection, screening and testing, the treatment of blood products, and the adequacy of the decision-making process within the BTSB.
The tribunal was also asked to inquire into the actions of the BTSB and into the adequacy of the response of the Minister for Health and his Department to the danger of infection.
The Lindsay tribunal had its origins in the hepatitis C tribunal of 1996, which was set up to investigate the infection of people with the Anti-D vaccine administered to certain pregnant women.
