Irish Examiner view: From blood scandal to Thalidomide, State must do better at righting wrongs
The late Jacqui Browne — pictured in 2010 on board the Cork yacht during the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race — was honoured last month in the 'Irish Examiner'. See link at the foot of this article. File picture: Denis Minihane
As the world remembered the 40th anniversary of Live Aid at the weekend, it was somewhat salutary to note that while we here in Ireland are unsurpassed at donating to charitable causes — we alone raised IR£1.7m (the equivalent of €22.5m today), the highest figure donated to the Bob Geldof initiative per capita globally — more often than not we fall short when it comes to doling out financial justice in other matters.
There have been many such examples down the years, with one of the most notorious — and costly to the State — being the blood scandal whereby people were contaminated by transfusions or blood products through the 1970s and into the 1990s.
