The Blood Transfusion Service Board failed to make tax returns for its employees in the early 1980s, it emerged at the tribunal yesterday.
A finance expert, Mr John McStay, said this meant the organisation had clearly failed to meet its statutory obligations.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden SC, asked Mr McStay, who was giving evidence for the third day on the BTSB's financial affairs, if this was extraordinary in the context of a State body.
Mr McStay said for the BTSB not to send in its tax returns was "probably a very silly thing to do" as it brought the matter to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners very quickly. Had it filed returns, without a cheque, the Revenue might not have noticed for some time.
Documents opened to the tribunal showed the BTSB received a bill for close to £750,000 in May 1982 from the Revenue Commissioners in respect of PAYE and PRSI payments for staff, plus interest on late payments from November 1981 to March 1982.
Asked how he interpreted this bill as an experienced receiver and liquidator, Mr McStay said when a company was in financial difficulty the person who shouted loudest got paid. "I would say the office of Collector General was not a very aggressive pursuer of debts," he said, adding that this was no longer the position.
Other documents showed how in May 1983, after the Revenue began suing the BTSB for the money owed, the board wrote to the Revenue Commissioners saying it believed the sum now due was just over £246,000 as it had begun to make double payments each month to the Revenue.
The tribunal heard that the board failed to make returns when it was in deep financial difficulty. At one point, the Revenue Commissioners was refusing to honour its cheques. As Mr McStay put it: "1982 was the pits as far as the board's finances were concerned." It was bailed out by the Department of Health to the extent of £1.6 million.
Mr Hayden put it to Mr McStay that the income the board was receiving from the sale of imported blood products, which infected haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C, was all the more important at a time when it was experiencing such financial difficulties. Mr McStay said he estimated the BTSB's income from this source in 1984 at £50,000, which would have represented just 1 per cent of its total income that year.