The Blood Transfusion Service Board expected to generate an income of £780,000 in 1987 from the sale of Irish plasma to commercial companies and from the sale to hospitals of blood products made from the plasma, the tribunal was told.
The BTSB's anticipated income from custom fractionation - which refers to having bloodclotting agents manufactured by commercial firms from Irish plasma - increased in 1987 from £623,500 in 1986.
In the first year of the deal, 1985, the total "savings and profit" from the arrangement was estimated by the board to reach £250,000, documents showed.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, was criticised for making reference to these figures by counsel for the BTSB, Mr Frank Clarke SC, and by counsel for the tribunal Mr John Finlay SC, who claimed they were being taken out of context and would be more appropriately raised with a financial witness from the BTSB rather than Dr Emer Lawlor, deputy medical director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (formerly the BTSB) who was in the witness box.
Mr Finlay said they were matters that required to be investigated, but they should be taken up with a witness who felt competent in dealing with figures. Dr Lawlor had said several times she was not a figures person.
Mr Trainor said Dr Lawlor had repeatedly stated that the BTSB's decision to engage commercial firms to make Factor 8 from Irish plasma was not made for financial gain and he had to be able to challenge her on this. "She can't have it both ways," he said.
He suggested it would have been perfectly viable for the BTSB to make the product at Pelican House, but it opted not to do so because there was more profit to be made from having the blood products made by a commercial company.
The financial aspect of the decision was clearly referred to in documents discovered to the tribunal, he said, and they showed the deal was "enormously profitable" for the board.
Dr Lawlor said the BTSB needed to cover its overheads and pay staff. The board engaged commercial firms to make Factor 8 from Irish plasma for safety reasons and in a bid to achieve self-sufficiency, she said.
The BTSB's counsel said he wished to clarify that the income of over £700,000 referred to for 1987 was not profit, but the figure against which costs would have to be offset.