The ministerially nominated board members of the BTSB grew concerned in 1989 that they might be liable as individuals to being sued by haemophiliacs, the Lindsay Tribunal heard yesterday.
The minutes of a board meeting on September 20th, 1989 recorded that the agency's chief executive officer had contacted the Department of Health about "members' indemnity" and was still awaiting a reply. At the same meeting, the board noted: "The insurance company has been asked to confirm in writing that their indemnity to us stands."
Giving evidence yesterday, Dr Terry Walsh, former chief medical consultant of the BTSB, said he could recall concern among board members that they might be liable in the context of the legal action being pursued against the agency by the Irish Haemophilia Society.
Concern was also expressed at the meeting about the "potential legal and public relations aspects" of a look-back programme which would have traced the source of HIV donations.
Dr Walsh said his recommendation for such a look-back was rejected as the feeling was that "what happened in the past was past" and "should be left alone."
Had a look-back taken place, the BTSB would have discovered that the woman known as the Kilkenny healthcare worker was infected through a blood transfusion in July 1985.
The woman, however, did not discover she had received a contaminated donation until December 1996, and then only by accident, when she tested positive for HIV while on holiday.
Asked if he could recall who spoke against his recommendation, Dr Walsh said he could not but he would have been surprised if Prof Ian Temperley, the medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, had not supported him.
Prof Temperley was one of nine board members in attendance at the meeting. Others present were two officials from the Department of Health and the chairman of the board, the accountant, Mr Noel Fox.
Describing the incident on Wednesday, Dr Walsh had said he was told "in rather dramatic terms that I was overstating my case" and to "stop causing scares."
Yesterday Dr Walsh was asked by counsel for the IHS, Mr Martin Hayden, whether it was "credible" that he could remember the content of what was said but not who said it. Dr Walsh was stopped from replying by his counsel, Mr Charles Meenan.
On the issue of board members' liability, the position was clarified in a letter from the Department in December 1989, which said members would not be liable "unless extreme incompetence, negligence or corruption was alleged".