THE Department of Health was accused of operating a rubberstamp mechanism in issuing retrospective manufacturing renewal licences for anti D production.
The charge was made after further revelations of its methods were made at the tribunal of inquiry into the hepatitis C scandal yesterday.
Ms Maureen Ward, a Department official, described her section's role as "more or less" one of signing licence renewal forms and collecting the £600 fee in the 1980s after the applications were processed by the National Drugs Advisory Board (NDAB).
An executive officer working in the public health division of the Department from 1977, she said recommendations that licences be granted to the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) were seat to her section from the NDAB in 1984 and 1987. The licences, for the BTSB's anti D programme, would be signed and retrospectively dated to when the licences should have been renewed.
Mr John Rogers SC, counsel for Positive Action and the McCole family, asked Ms Ward whether any inquiries were made by the Department as regards the application.
"We would not have considered it necessary insofar as the board INDABJ was given the function and had the expertise. We only had one pharmacist," replied Ms Ward.
The Department was "inundated" with licence applications. The NDAB would get the dossiers and any information it sought, in an application. The Department got a bare notification of the applications.
Replying to Mr Roger's comment that the Department operated a rubber stamp mechanism, Ms Ward said it relied "on the recommendation of the board INDABJ".
In relation to a 1984 licence renewal application, Ms Ward said she was unable to explain why the date of the application and the date of the Department's receiving the licence from the NDAB, were both September 20th.
She agreed that the NDAB had already dated the document for October 2nd, by the time the Department signed it on November 15th. It was operating on the Minister's behalf, she said.
Mr James Nugent SC, counsel for the tribunal, asked her, "who authorised this procedure, your superior officers?"
Ms Ward: "I am not in a position to say. Certainly it was practice at the time, when it came down signed as it was."
In relation to a 1987 renewal application the NDAB's recommendation came on October 7th, but was again backdated to October 2nd. However, the application had not been made by the BTSB until October 23rd, 1987.
The licence would come dated from the board," Ms Ward explained, "The idea was to get them [licences] out as soon as possible because the companies would have been waiting for them," she said.