An air-conditioning system costing more than £250,000 was installed at the headquarters of the Blood Transfusion Service in the early 1980s, at a time when the blood bank was in financial difficulty, the tribunal has been told.
The BTSB applied to the Department of Health for a grant of £200,000 to fund the project, but no money was forthcoming, said Mr John McStay, a financial expert put forward by the BTSB to give evidence to the tribunal.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden SC, said the board had been told in December 1983 that losses for the following year were projected at £161,000.
In this context, he asked Mr McStay if it was a financially prudent decision by the board to spend £253,000 on an air-conditioning/heating system at Mespil Road, the new premises it was moving into in 1984.
"I believe the issue of the heating system at Mespil Road was a necessity from my reading of the documentation, but I've no personal knowledge in relation to the matter," Mr McStay said.
Mr Hayden persisted with his cross-examination, asking Mr McStay if it was a financially prudent decision to make "this sort of capital expenditure" knowing the board was going to have to fund it out of its cash flow.
"I would say it was no less financially prudent than many similar capital expenditures undertaken during the period by the BTSB," Mr McStay said.
The tribunal has already heard that the blood bank's decision to move from Leeson Street to Mespil Road in 1979 cost more than expected, and was the main reason for its severe financial difficulties in the early 1980s.
In 1981 the board suffered losses of more than £1 million and was subsequently bailed out by the Department of Health to the extent of £1.6 million.
When Mr McStay resumed his evidence in the afternoon he said he wished to clarify points raised on the prudence of spending money on air-conditioning without having the necessary funding in place. He said having looked at the documents again, it appeared the board believed in April 1984 it would have a surplus of up to £380,000 which would fund capital expenditure.
He added that there was no record in BTSB documents of somebody saying there was no money for items which were medically necessary because the money was being spent on fitting out the Mespil Road premises.