Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We, as elected legislators of this nation, again find ourselves confronted by the sins of past generations in addressing the issue of symphysiotomy, a procedure inflicted on unsuspecting and unfortunate mothers who at the very hour of their distress in giving birth to their children were abused mentally, physically, emotionally and unconstitutionally at the hands of agents of this State who to this day have at no point been confronted with the horror of their actions. They were people into whose hands the women had placed their trust and they had the responsibility to act in such a way as to protect the women's interests, to act in good faith and to uphold and protect their rights to self-determination, bodily integrity and the right to refuse medical treatment. Those medical practitioners were revered and respected at a time in our history when such reverence was misdirected towards many unworthy of such sentiments. The women were abused in every conceivable way. They were gratuitously maimed in the process of procedures conducted by pillars of Irish society on behalf of the State on extremely dubious grounds. The women involved suffered at the hands of those practitioners who rode rough-shod over their legal, moral and constitutional rights to bodily integrity and self-determination. They were kept entirely in the dark and denied the option of considering alternative procedures already widely practised at the time across the civilised world.

I acknowledge the words of the Minister last night. I also acknowledge the work done by the cross-party group on the issue, in particular by my constituency colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, and all Members, both Government and Opposition. I wish to see a speedy resolution to the issue. I would welcome the introduction of a speedy redress scheme so the women do not have to endure lengthy court proceedings and that the issue will be addressed this year rather than next year. If at all possible the matter should be dealt with before the summer as many of the women are at an advanced age. This is a key issue for the nation. It is time such issues were consigned to the past. While the trauma the women suffered cannot be addressed to a significant extent what we can do is apologise as a State for what happened and make sure a comprehensive redress scheme is put in place. I welcome what the Minister said last night on the issue.

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