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

The UN committee is free to offer its opinion on any matter it considers relevant but in this country we are ruled by our laws and justice is administered by the courts. We are an independent sovereign State. It is up to the women individually to decide whether to apply for the scheme and to accept the award. The vast majority have accepted their awards. They do not have to prove negligence in any case. With the exception of symphiosotomy on the way out, those who have gone to court were not able to prove that the practice was not without justification at the time it was done.

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