arranging to have blood products delivered to an Irishman living in another EU country did not save him from contracting infection, the tribunal heard.
A 51-year-old haemophiliac said he went to great trouble to have blood-clotting agents delivered to him when he was abroad, in a country which cannot be named to protect his identity, but he still ended up with hepatitis C.
Giving evidence under the pseudonym Daniel, he said the quality of his life was diminished enormously by the infection but he felt his story was "shallow" compared to the devastating testimony the tribunal had heard over the past seven days.
He was angry that at least 20 haemophiliacs had had to bare their souls to the country to try to get justice. "There is no doubt there has been a cover-up that started at the top and has been allowed to percolate through the whole system. It's unforgivable."
He said a doctor was recently given a number of life sentences for killing his patients in the UK. "Fortunately for them, they had the dignity to die immediately. We are the ones who are serving the sentence here."
In 1987, Daniel returned home with abdominal pains and underwent a liver biopsy at St James's Hospital. He was told he had chronic cirrhosis of the liver and hepatitis C.
Another witness using the name Julie spoke about the death of her brother from AIDS five years ago. He was aged 38. The only support the family received was from members of the Irish Haemophilia Society.
She said her brother had to pay for his own counselling, and her 70-year-old mother who was looking after him was unable to have an operation she needed.
Towards the end he was in hospital, where he fell out of his bed and had to receive a stitch over his eye and more Factor 8 to stop bleeding. Fearing he would die in hospital and be put in a body bag, the family took him home.
They were unable to get an ambulance so he travelled in his brother's car. Two of the staff of the Irish Haemophilia Society, nurse Ms Margaret King and Ms Rosemary Daly, now the society's administrator, travelled with them. He lived for another 12 days and they were at his bedside day and night.
She said her brother died at a time when there were severe cutbacks in the health sector. She wanted to know if it was because adequate finances were not made available to hospitals that contaminated blood products continued to be used.
Julie said she also wanted to know why there was not an immediate investigation when blood products were found to be contaminated. "I believe if this had been done 15 years ago a lot of the women infected with hepatitis C might not have been infected," she said.
The tribunal was also asked yesterday to investigate how sections of a document discovered by Prof Ian Temperley to the tribunal were published yesterday in the Irish Examiner under the headline "Blood staff told to cover up AIDS risk". Counsel for Prof Temperley claimed the article was sensational and grossly unfair to his client.
Judge Alison Lindsay said she took a very serious view of the matter. The article, she said, seemed to bear all the hallmarks of unfairness and she would decide what action, if any, would be taken when she had read it.