The relationship between the BTSB's former national director, Dr Jack O'Riordan, and the multinational pharmaceutical company, Travenol, came under further scrutiny at the Lindsay tribunal yesterday.
The inquiry has already heard that Dr O'Riordan, now deceased, travelled to a conference in the United States on the company's behalf in 1979. It also heard that, five years earlier, he agreed to purchase blood products from the company despite having serious safety concerns over them, and did so seemingly on the basis that the BTSB would earn a 10 per cent commission on all subsequent sales to hospitals plus a profit on such sales.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, cited further evidence yesterday suggesting an "unusual" or "extraneous" relationship between the board official and the company. Among the documents was a letter in June 1983 showing a Travenol employee collected a diploma in Cambridge, England, on Dr O'Riordan's behalf. A further letter in January 1983 from the managing director of Travenol UK, Mr A.W. Barrell, referred to a social engagement in Dublin attended by Dr O'Riordan and a number of company sales representatives.
The letter also referred to some personal matter which seemingly only Mr Barrell and Dr O'Riordan were privy to. It read: "Concerning the other matter that you and I discussed together, I will now take my lead when I hear from you that you feel the time has come to talk again when perhaps we could have a quiet meeting somewhere."
Dr Emer Lawlor, deputy medical director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, as the BTSB is now known, said she was unaware what the matter in question was but suggested it could have been an offer from Travenol to start making blood products from Irish plasma, something the company did the following year.
Asked by Mr Trainor whether she thought the letter suggested an unusually personal relationship, Dr Lawlor replied: "That is obviously your interpretation."
The significance of the relationship comes into sharper focus when considering the BTSB's decision to purchase what seemed to have been a blood product not given heat treatment from Travenol in 1983 at a time when blood boards worldwide were moving towards safer, heat-treated products less likely to be infected with HIV.
In February 1983, Travenol wrote to the BTSB, making a "once-off" offer to sell the board a certain product in bulk. Dr Lawlor said she was not sure whether the product referred to was a blood product for haemophiliacs or another Travenol product, such as blood bags.
The tribunal will seek to clarify this issue in the coming days. It has not been helped, however, by a lack of certain financial documentation which apparently was destroyed by the board in accordance with its rules on the holding of such records.
Figures already given to the tribunal show that Travenol was the BTSB's second-biggest supplier of commercial product in 1983, providing a total of 1.22 million units. The company provided a further 563,000 units the following year.
Dr Lawlor later revealed the BTSB had investigated an employee of the board, who was now deceased, over his links with a drugs firm. Neither the staff member nor the company was named. Nor were any details of the investigation disclosed as Judge Alison Lindsay ruled the matter should be dealt with by another witness from the board at a later occasion.
The chairwoman also deferred further questioning on the destruction of the BTSB's Pelican House pre-1986 dispatch records, an issue raised for the second day and dealt with briefly by Dr Lawlor.
The IBTS deputy medical director said the records were destroyed in 1993, not 1995, as previously stated. She said the destruction was "very unfortunate" and that the only explanation she could give was that following the State's compensation settlement with haemophiliacs and their dependants in 1991, BTSB officials concluded the documents were no longer needed.
This was despite an instruction in 1989 by the board's chief executive officer, Mr Ted Keyes, not to destroy any documentation because of litigations.
Dr Lawlor said this instruction would have been sent to Dr Joan Power, regional director of BTSB's Cork offices, which unlike the Dublin office retained its dispatch records, and Dr Terry Walsh, the BTSB's medical director.
Dr Lawlor further stated that Mr Sean Hanratty, the board's chief technical officer, who retired in 1993 and died in 1996, was ultimately responsible for the dispatch department and its documents at the time of their destruction.
If that was the case, however, the question arises as to why he too did not receive the instruction from Mr Keyes.