The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) sold voluntary blood donations for profit, it emerged this evening.
The blood and blood products were sold over a 20-year period to 23 pharmaceutical firms. The Blood Transfusion Service Board, as it was known, was paid IR£80,000 between 1983 and 2002 when the practice ceased.
The Department of Health said this evening it had received a copy of a 52-page internal audit report carried out by the IBTS on the issue.
It said the report noted that on March 20th, 1997, IBTS National Medical Director, Dr William Murphy, issued a memo outlining procedures for the issue of products for research purposes to academic and healthcare institutions.
From that date, the practice of providing blood products to companies was discontinued at Pelican House in Dublin.
However, at the Munster Regional Transfusion Centre (MRTC) in Cork, the definition of healthcare institutions was taken to include a number of commercial ventures.
Dr Murphy issued a second memo on March 20th, 2002 to the MRTC stating the "provision of materials to these commercial companies should be suspended with immediate effect."
The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children said she was "surprised to learn of this matter and disturbed to hear that this practice has been taking place without the express consent of those who donated blood. " Dr Murphy, said earlier this evening the sales to companies were "unusual" but added: "I have not doubt it was done in good faith as a mutually beneficial arrangement with the commercial companies which needed this product to callibrate instruments for research purpuses."
"But it really didn't stand up to scrutiny there were problems of indemnity, of tracing the blood product, and most import of all, donors were giving their blood not for commercial use...but on the firm understanding that it was being used for theraputic purposes.
"So without a mandadate from the donors to do it, it really didn't stand up and had to be discontinued," he said during an interview on RTÉ television.
He said the Department of Health was not informed in 1997 and the matter was dealt with "in-house". He said the sale of products continued until 2002 in Cork because of a "misunderstanding." The sales from the Dublin centre ended in 1997.