Northern Ireland’s Health Department spends £40,000 defending gay blood ban
By Will Stroude
It has been revealed that Northern Ireland’s Department of Health has spent over £40,000 defending the country’s ban on gay blood donation.
The cost was revealed following a question at Stormont from the Green Party’s Steven Agnew, who slammed the use of public money as “disgraceful”, the Belfast Telegraph reports.
The department has spent £39,000 so far on legal costs in the ongoing case. The Department of Health said the costs were made up of £29,200 in charges for barristers, £9,400 in solicitors’ costs and £500 in other charges.
The ban on gay men donating blood was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in November 2011. Current rules allow donations from gay men who have not had sexual contact with another man for more than a year.
Former Health Minister Edwin Poots defended the prohibition in Northern Ireland however, on the grounds that the ban ensured public safety.
Earlier this month, a court ruled that Northern Ireland’s ban was “infected by apparent bias”, and back claims that Mr Poots’ stance was influenced by his Christian beliefs. The statement came following a High Court ruling in October 2013 which called the ban “irrational”.
Northern Ireland’s former Health Minister Edwin Poots
Calling the figures “disgraceful”, Mr Agnew urged current Health Minister Jim Wells to abandon the policy’s legal denfence.
“It is a similar amount of money to what was paid out in the legal challenge to gay couples adopting,” he said. “Combined, these sums are significant. Collectively, they show further evidence that, as Justice Treacy put it, this is beyond religious belief and into the realms of prejudice.
“This is clearly a personal agenda driven forward by a previous Health Minister. Given that the appeal is ongoing, it looks like it is set to continue with the current Health Minister. I think it is a disgrace that that a minister has used public money to follow what had been judged by the courts as a personal agenda.”
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