Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses, as it is a very difficult thing to speak in public about their lives and life experiences. I lament that it is necessary. I appreciate how courageous they are today and the nerves of being in a forum that can be seen on television. I thank them most sincerely for that.

We have two very distinct groups here today. However, we have a commonality of experience, in that there is a lack of accommodation and proper provision for "minority groups", to borrow a term from my own area of employment law, where we have a small distinct group that has distinct needs, and yet these needs are not being accommodated.

I will first turn to Ms Dennehy. In the course of my political career, canvassing doors, I came across a lady who had a similar lived experience. I had to put away my mobile phone and divest myself of everything to go into her home and sit and chat and listen to her. It is a challenge to try and describe it to people outside that environment to get them to believe and accept that this is a reality. I welcome this platform and others. I am glad to see that it went to the EU. We need to take seriously people's experience. While Ms Dennehy's experience is of a more pronounced reaction there is probably a sliding scale of people who do not even realise that they are affected by LED devices. They might dismiss it as migraine, headaches or mild experiences. I would be interested to hear from Ms Dennehy and Ms Levin what we can do to accelerate that. I have raised it with the joint committee on housing because that includes local government so there is a conversation going on behind the scenes there. However, what would Ms Dennehy like from us? Obviously, we need testing before there is a national or international roll-out of any system. How do we ensure that testing where there is a small minority affected? How do we bridge that gap? It seems to me there is a shortfall in our test to establish symptoms and experience as a disability in order to empower people with the ability to have even a legal claim. I would be interested in any advice that Ms Dennehy could give on that.

I thank the Irish Thalidomide Association so much. Its recent campaign at the Leinster House gates in particular brought home the association's case to everyone. There is a direct connection between that day and today in airing its views. I am horrified by its members' experience. Ms Cassidy picked an example with blood testing and blood pressure that is so everyday for everybody. It was exactly the right example to capture the survivors' experience. I want to acknowledge that there is no such thing as post traumatic stress disorder, here, it is stress disorder and trauma all of the time. From reading, documentaries and my attempts to educate myself over the years, I can only imagine what might have begun as test cases, ignorance and a life-long experience of that. They are still experiencing it. I do not understand how we do not have a specialist thalidomide care unit that can go on circuit around the country in order that a small group of specialists could come and visit. As we can get the High Court to sit in circuit, I do not see why we could not apply that to medical care to make sure we have that universality of experience wherever people are living in the country. The patients should not have to come to them, the services should come to the patients.

We are airing the issues but we need to turn it in to practical things that we seek. What would the association like the committee to call for? What would it like us to highlight? From my experience, this committee will be more than delighted to do that for it.