The Blood Transfusion Service Board was accused yesterday of having been "rotten to the core" in the way it dealt with and "concealed" its infection of haemophiliacs with HIV through contaminated blood products.
In his closing submission to the Lindsay tribunal on behalf of the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden SC, said the BTSB, which was last year renamed the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS), "was largely responsible" for the "unnecessary and avoidable" infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C.
It had to bear responsibility, not alone for its own infected products made at Pelican House, but also those it imported and supplied, he said. "Many persons with haemophilia have gone to an early grave as a result of the lack of action or respect for human life perpetuated by the BTSB and its personnel in the pursuit of financial priorities.
"The BTSB was rotten to the core in its policy to perpetuate subterfuge which continued during the course of this tribunal." .
Mr Hayden said the BTSB knew from 1986 that its Pelican House-made factor 9 clotting agent caused HIV infections but did not admit this for 15 years, until the tribunal began. The product infected seven haemophilia B patients, five of whom have died.
The blood bank failed to inform these patients of the cause of their infection and when they subsequently sought recompense and brought legal action, the BTSB denied its responsibility and knowledge of the cause of infection, he said. It also denied until during the course of the tribunal that its cryoprecipitate, a form of factor 8, was the likely infection of one haemophilia A patient.
"There was an obligation on the BTSB to inform those persons infected. The BTSB did not discharge this obligation. Instead the BTSB perpetrated a fraudulent concealment of its role in the infection of persons with haemophilia with HIV.
"To date no apology or acknowledgement of its wrongdoing has been forthcoming from this organisation, either in its past or present guise," Mr Hayden said.
He submitted that the tribunal should not accept the BTSB's expert witness, Dr Emer Lawlor, as impartial. He claimed her evidence was "biased" and that she had made "sweeping statements" which aimed to distance the BTSB from the infections.
Dr Lawlor, deputy national medical director of the IBTS, had attempted "to diminish the magnitude of the BTSB's repeated failure" to observe Council of Europe recommendations aimed at ensuring the safety of blood products, he said.
She also tried "to reduce the BTSB's culpability" for products it imported and supplied, describing its role as mere "warehousing", he added.
"Dr Lawlor's evidence to the tribunal reveals a mindset within the present day hierarchy of the IBTS which reflects that which existed when the infections occurred," he claimed.
The tribunal is investigating the infection of an estimated 252 haemophiliacs with HIV and/or hepatitis C from contaminated blood products. Seventy-eight of them have died from illnesses related to their infection, including six since the start of the tribunal.