3rd August 2000
Having attended the Anti D - Hepatitis C Tribunal almost on a daily basis I was well aware how harrowing the evidence given before the Lindsay Tribunal would be. The early days were devoted to hearing from patients with haemophilia who had become infected with HIV or the Hepatitis C virus through blood products supplied through the Blood Transfusion Service Board or relatives who told the stories of dead loved ones. The evidence of the doctors who treated patients has been delayed due to the summer break. The evidence of the Blood Bank doctors had only just begun.
Most media attention has focused on the political tribunals and it has been suggested 'Tribunal Fatigue' has set in. Not having had the time to go to either the Flood or Moriarty Tribunals until the last day of both, I recommend all those who can to attend both as soon as they recommence in September. Superficially they are hilarious. Even better than Joe Taylor and Malcolm Douglas's revue on the subject in the HQ in Abbey Street. There is no evidence of Tribunal Fatigue in Dublin Castle!
Charlie Haughey features mornings only in the Moriarty Tribunal so I went there first. On his first appearance the space the Dublin Castle staff had prepared for the general public was grossly underutilised, but the Castle staff knew he was a star and by the last day I joined a vast crowd watching him on huge video screens in the subterranean Fountain Bar. The splendid St. George's Hall where the live event takes place was full already. Like Manuel of Fawlty Towers, Charlie could remember nothing. He looked disdainful and elegant. He knew he should not be down with the groundlings. He could not recall, he could not remember. Then an effusive letter from his Bank Manager, the late Michael Phelan (and why wouldn't it have been effusive, I suppose the poor man thought at last he would get a few bob) congratulating him on becoming Taoiseach was produced. "Well", said the Counsel, "You'll hardly remember this letter, you probably got so many letters of congratulations" or words to that effect. "No" says the amnesic one "I do remember it", etc. etc. Well, the Fountain Bar inhabitants broke into clapping, cheers, "good on you", "he remembers". The groundlings realised the show was worth watching.
I stayed and heard the incredible session about "debts of honour" to the AIB not being sought by the AIB over 20 years (has this ever happened to anyone else?) so Charlie did not bother to pay it, even though he insisted he was a man of honour and held a position of honour. Talking of honour, I had attended many sessions of the DIRT investigation before the Committee for Public Affairs and the AIB team on display there weren't talking too much about "honour" themselves. Maybe customer and bank were well met.
On down to the Flood Tribunal which is being held in much less salubrious rooms in the old printing press area of Dublin Castle, draped with puce curtains. There were many faces familiar from the newspapers' business pages, a good crowd of holiday makers in shorts and retired people. It was very hot in there and I complained about this to the man sitting beside me. He agreed about the heat and said the doors on both sides of the room should be opened to create a good cross current of wind "the way they were last year". As a tax payer this alarmed me, we could be paying for a good cross wind for many years on this one I'd say.
A Mr. James Stafford was giving evidence and I think he was loving it. He was a director of the failed Century Radio and Television Company. When I was there he was explaining how to launch a "right's issue" if one's company is going badly. Contact me if you need more details but it seemed like a great scheme if you could find a few people dopey enough to part with funds.
There are years left in the Flood Tribunal so go to the Moriarty Tribunal first. Also, bring your memories of the Health Service of the 80s when it was starved of cash and no 'right's issue' possible as a solution. The only consultant in the BTSB was trying to run a service on his own. Remember the hospitals that were closed when you go to the Moriarty Tribunal and hear that a million pound debt in the 70's could be regarded as a minor inconvenience. I'm not the first one to comment on the intertwining of the people at all the Tribunals but the effect of those few who lived very high lives in a country starved of cash had a serious effect on many.
How many lives might have been different if those who should have been paying taxes had done so? So many people would have got better treatment from the health service.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
