Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputies may not believe it, but the idea here genuinely is to bring about a resolution and draw to a close an issue which has been going on for far too long. It is to help women come to a resolution. The assessor and her team are there to help survivors get the award, and to get the higher award if possible. In my view most of the women will get the higher award because the definition of severe disability in the scheme is three years of symptoms including instability in walking and back pain. On meeting the women it is evident that in a very large number of cases they have had such a disability and will therefore qualify for the higher award.

I will certainly check up on the issue of medical reports. My understanding is the vast majority of survivors already have reports. More than 150 of them have or had cases before the courts and others have records from their GPs or consultants. In the past, they were offered the services of a consultant urologist, consultant gynaecologist and triple assessment at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital. I do not see why anyone would have to travel outside the State for such an assessment. I will certainly check up on the issue. I would not like it to be the case that anybody lost her opportunity to apply because she could not obtain a medical assessment of some sort.

See this speech in context