Structural weaknesses were identified in the Blood Transfusion Service in the early 1980s but very little was done about them by the Department of Health for a number of years, the tribunal heard.
The former secretary general of the Department, Mr Jerry O'Dwyer, said the administrative and management weaknesses were identified in 1981 and continued until 1985 when the national director of the BTSB retired and was replaced by two people - a chief executive and a medical director.
Mr O'Dwyer said one of the reasons the Department failed to take action was because it did not want to have a confrontation with the board.
Mr O'Dwyer said the Department took some steps to remedy the situation by appointing two people with financial expertise to the board of Blood Transfusion Service in 1982 and 1984.
However, he added, it would have been desirable if the Department had brought about more changes during that period. It was a time of financial stringency, he said, and this coincided with the emergence of the threat of AIDS.
The first haemophiliac was diagnosed with AIDS in the Republic in November 1984.