The woman jailed last year for stealing €116,000 from a charity set up to support women with hepatitis C was considered “brilliant” by some of her peers, and the only one with book-keeping experience.

A support group for women given contaminated blood products by the State has been wound up with debts in excess of €107,000.

A new Hep C support group has formed to replace the organisation whose funding was pulled because of concerns about “inappropriate and extravagant” use of public money.