Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, I welcome the women and their families who are in the Gallery with us tonight. I hope it is the last time they find they need to be in this House for this purpose. I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for his persistence, and Sinn Féin for its generosity in giving of its time tonight to the Technical Group.

I welcome the decision of the Government to accept this legislation but its generosity will be judged by the speed at which a Bill is finally enacted, and the substance of that Bill. I hope there will not be any delay and that what we will get is exactly what the women expected - a means of redress.

It is now widely accepted that the practice of symphysiotomy was never necessary. As has been referred to, the Supreme Court decision affirmed that. It was an incredible practice imposed on women as a procedure which, primarily, was about facilitating a Catholic social policy of large families.

Last year when we debated the matter, I spoke of my 90 year old mother, who is still with us, who in 1952 was subject to this barbaric practice in Holles Street. It was to ensure they had larger families. She had her first child in 1952. She did not question the practice and did not really have a word to describe what it was. By 1956, there were five of us, and there were more to follow. It certainly delivered the large families. Often these large families were difficult to rear and women put themselves on the back burner, so to speak.

The important point is that we have a solution. There are missing medical records. Some of these records will go back to the 1940s and 1950s. It will be important that we get a description of how women will deal with the burden of proof if they end up in court in such an environment where those records do not exist. The records might not exist but the results of the process certainly exist with those who have survived this practice, often with considerable difficulty for decades. I hope there will be generosity shown in cases where there is a difficulty because the records have not survived.

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