Speculation and innuendo crept into the proceedings of the Lindsay tribunal this week, and understandably so, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation for key decisions of the Blood Transfusion Service Board in the 1980s.
Questions remain about the BTSB's decision to abandon a project aimed at making the board self-sufficient in blood products for haemophiliacs which, if successful, could have prevented many of the 260 cases of HIV and hepatitis C infections.
The project, headed by the board's former chief technical officer, the late Sean Hanratty, was abandoned after three years, suddenly and without explanation.
In its place, the board started a more lucrative programme of commercial fractionation where by Irish plasma was sent to specialist drug companies overseas which, as well as paying for the plasma, in return supplied the board with free clotting agents for haemophiliacs.
Infections have since been traced to many of these reimported products.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, referred to Mr Hanratty and, more specifically, his possible links with pharmaceutical companies.
A former director of AccuScience, a company which supplied medical products to the board, Mr Hanratty was said to have been a possible beneficiary of the project on which he was working.
It was suggested he might have part-funded the project or paid the salary of a laboratory technician to work on it. Moreover, it was alleged that Mr Hanratty, along with a drug company, Travenol, which had been contracted to provide heparin bags for the venture, could have benefited from patent rights if it had proved successful.
With only circumstantial evidence before the tribunal, it would be wrong to draw any early conclusions. However, enough has been heard to warrant further investigation.
Of particular interest will be the outcome of an internal BTSB investigation into Mr Hanratty's business ties with Accu-Science and other suppliers to the board. A report on the inquiry was presented to the board in January 1991 but never made public.
It followed complaints made some weeks earlier by Mr Pat Rabbitte TD that neither blood packs nor hardware were put out to tender but were, rather, supplied by a company called IntraScience which Mr Rabbitte described as an "associate company" of Accu-Science, and an agent for a large Dutch firm.
Records from the Companies Registration Office show AccuScience and Intra-Science continue to share a director.
In a press statement, Mr Rabbitte claimed that the BTSB's Dublin centre had been purchasing up to 150,000 blood packs a year from Intra-Science for £10 each, whereas its Cork centre was spending only £4.20 on a similar product supplied by Baxter-Travenol, "which used to provide materials to Pelican House before Accu-Science intruded on the scene".
Similarly, Mr Rabbitte alleged Intra-Science had charged the Dublin centre £18,000 for blood storage machines similar to those which the Cork centre had purchased for £4,500.
"Is it that Cork is making do with an inferior product? Or is it that somebody with the inside track has cornered the market in Dublin?" Mr Rabbitte asked.
In a follow-up statement on January 22nd Mr Rabbitte criticised the BTSB for refusing to make the report public. He also expressed his "surprise" that the Fianna Fail minister for health, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, had refused to comment on the issue.
It is understood Mr Hanratty told the board that he had intended to step down as a director of Accu-Science in 1983, and had completed an appropriate form notifying the change, but that, for some reason, it did not reach the Companies Registration Office.
A form from that office registered the change on January 25th, 1991. However, the document was dated January 1983 and stated that Mr Hanratty had resigned as director "as and from 9th November, 1982", just 10 months after the company had been established.
Mr Hanratty, who died in 1996, was described on the form as a farmer with an address in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. He was also known in political circles as a Fianna Fail activist and once sat on the party's national executive committee.
While the outcome of the BTSB inquiry is unknown, it appears no action was taken against Mr Hanratty as he continued to work as the board's chief technical officer until 1993.
The tribunal has already heard that in that same year he ordered the destruction of all pre-1986 product dispatch records at Pelican House, seemingly in violation of an executive order to retain all documentation in light of legal actions being taken by haemophiliacs against the board and pharmaceutical companies.
In contrast, the Cork centre retained all its dispatch records.
As well as investigating these issues, it is expected the tribunal will examine whether any of the firms with which Mr Hanratty was associated had links with pharmaceutical companies which supplied the board with clotting agents for haemophiliacs, some of which turned out to be infected. The largest three such suppliers in the mid-1980s were Armour, Cutter and Travenol.
While the evidence to date poses many questions, answers will not be forthcoming for some time. Judge Alison Lindsay has deferred further questioning on the BTSB's internal inquiry and other issues relating to Mr Hanratty's commercial interests until the board makes available a financial witness capable of dealing with them.
In all likelihood, that will not be until after the summer recess.