Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue today. I would first like to acknowledge the fantastic resilience and commitment of all those survivors, victims and campaigners who actively campaign for justice for the victims of this barbaric procedure. As the Minister is aware, these groups consist of survivors of both symphysiotomy and pubiotomy. They have been actively campaigning for an independent inquiry into these covert operations for the past ten years. This State has failed these women. The demands for a public inquiry, for full medical supports and for the right to pursue these cases through the courts must be facilitated.

I am honoured to be one of the Sinn Féin Party representatives on the Oireachtas all-party support group. Many of the victims of symphysiotomy are permanently disabled, incontinent and in pain. I aim to highlight the anguish and unnecessary suffering these women endured. I find it astonishing that no person or agency has ever been held accountable for these cruel and unnecessary procedures.

The admission by the Minister that symphysiotomy may occasionally have been wrongly performed did not go far enough. We in Sinn Féin rebut any suggestion that symphysiotomy was generally an appropriate intervention. It was never a standard operation in any country at any time and was a maverick practice that should never have been performed. As studies have shown, both symphysiotomy and pubiotomy carry more risk than caesarean section. This brutal surgery unhinged the pelvis and often led to long-term walking difficulties, bladder problems and chronic pain. One of the starkest statistics shows that one baby in ten died when this practice was performed. Ireland was the only country in the western world to practise these 18th-century operations in the mid to late 20th century. The consequences for mothers of symphysiotomy were horrendous. The long-term physical effects only tell half the story. Many mothers had great difficulty bondingwith their children and, as a mother of three, I find this one of the most heart-breaking consequences of this unnecessary procedure. The brutality of the practice of symphysiotomy turned what should be the most memorable and joyous occasion of childbirth into a nightmare.

These women were generally not informed in advance about their surgery. Neither the risks nor the benefits had been explained to them nor had the existence of a safer alternative, caesarean section, been mentioned. The failure of some hospital staff to inform women of their surgery was even more disturbing. Even general practitioners refused, on occasion, to tell women what had been done to them. Several decades had elapsed before many women finally understood that their pelvises had been broken. It was as though these were secret operations, not to be disclosed to the patient. The sinister role of the medical profession continues to this day as many patients have been unable to get access to their complete files. Last night we heard from victims who could access all their records apart from those relating to the birth of their children. It was as if it had never happened. This is a disgraceful attempt to defend the medical profession from gross injustices perpetrated on patients. It is something we have seen before and it is absolutely shameful. A large percentage of women who underwent the procedure of symphysiotomy decided against having more children due to the emotional and physical attack they had undergone without their consent and because they feared this procedure would once again be forced upon them.

We need to ensure that all the victims of symphysiotomy receive justice. This draconian operation left women with horrific physical and mental effects. As has been stated, many women still experience severe side effects due to the procedure of symphysiotomy and these severely impact on their quality of life. The women who were subjected to this abusive surgery in childbirth have repeatedly reiterated their call for the statute that bars them from redress to be set aside. As elected Members of Parliament, we have a duty to ensure that these women, whose constitutional and human rights were violated by these pelvis-breaking operations, finally receive justice.

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