John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I would have thought that the independent assessment by the State Claims Agency was far from an attempt to exclude submissions by the thalidomide group. The assessment was carried out independently and this was the response. I hope the thalidomide group see that it was not an attempt not to listen to them or to delay their involvement.

The second issue will be considered after the response of the thalidomide groups. It also ties into the third question. I do not want to delay things by talking about the level of funding proposed, but this was an expression of sympathy on behalf of the Government, recognising the huge difficulties caused by thalidomide.

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