A former executive of the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) moved to stop staff getting sponsorship from commercial firms to attend conferences when he took up his position, the tribunal heard.
Mr Ted Keyes said it emerged in 1986 that three staff were to attend a conference in Sydney, two of whom were to be funded totally or in part by firms supplying the board. He was concerned about the public perception of such an arrangement. People would wonder what the commercial firms were getting out of it, he said.
At a meeting of the BTSB it was decided that the three staff should travel to Sydney to a meeting of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, but at the board's expense. "And from there on it was all above board," he said.
Asked by counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Finlay SC, what brought this change about, Mr Keyes said: "The board felt and I felt that it was inappropriate. It gives the wrong message. I just didn't like it.
"I thought it might be hard to explain publicly that three of our staff had gone to Australia at quite considerable cost, but, more particularly, funded by sponsorship from commercial firms. People would certainly raise questions about what the commercial firms were getting out of this. I did not want that in the organisation," he said.
Mr Keyes was asked by counsel if he was aware from working with health boards in the 1970s - he was employed by both the Western and Eastern Health Boards - that funding by drug companies of doctors' travel expenses to attend conferences was not unusual. "Very much so," he replied, saying he could give a specific instance, but counsel asked him not to.
Mr Keyes drew up guidelines on sponsorship and set aside an annual budget to fund staff travel to meetings abroad. Staff were told that if firms were willing to contribute money as sponsorship they should do so directly to the board, rather than to the staff member.
Staff travelling to conferences were ordered to apply for permission six weeks in advance to the board's chief medical consultant, enclosing an agenda or brochures for the event.
The tribunal has heard that the former national director of the BTSB, Dr Jack O'Riordan, travelled to the US at the expense of the Travenol pharmaceutical firm. The same company had offered the BTSB a contract, through which it could profit from the sale of its blood-clotting agents in the Republic.