Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Judge Harding Clark's report on the surgical symphysiotomy ex gratiapayments scheme does not remedy an injustice, as the Minister claims, but in fact adds to the injustice faced by a group of women, women maimed without their consent by this State and its health services. After everything these women have been through, some suffering for over 60 years, they are effectively being re-traumatised. Let us be honest about it. The elderly women and their supporters believe they are being accused of dishonesty, of deceit and of making fraudulent claims. How unfair it is that these women, one of whom is in her 90s, are left feeling their reputations and honesty are called into question and that their years of suffering are belittled.

The judge asserts that a compassionate approach was adopted in assessing the claims of these women. Frankly, this is hard to credit. It is worth repeating that the barbaric and controversial procedure used on an estimated 1,500 women in Ireland up to the 1980s involved the cutting of the cartilage of a pregnant woman's pelvic bone and of breaking the bone itself in some extreme cases to widen the birth canal. The thought of it is horrific, not least for those of us who have had babies ourselves. Many subjected to the procedure were left with long-term medical difficulties, including incontinence and chronic pain.

The UN Human Rights Committee, the only independent body which examined the issue, described the practice of symphysiotomy as being cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, amounting to torture. Judge Harding Clark's report takes a different view, arguing that this brutal procedure was non-injurious and medically appropriate. The consent of the patient, she further argues, was unnecessary and not required. The UN committee also recommended that the State should identify, prosecute and punish those who had carried out these procedures without the prior consent of the women involved. The recommendation was to identify, prosecute and punish but the State and the Government have chosen to ignore it.

This lack of accountability adds to the injustice inflicted on these women. As is so often the case in this State, the persistent, relentless campaign for recognition and justice by a determined group of people has forced the Government towards offering some form of redress in compensation for an historic injustice. Judge Harding Clark was appointed as an independent assessor. She processed and assessed applications from almost 600 women who had been subjected to symphysiotomy or pubiotomy. Judge Harding Clark examined hospital records and medical tests to verify the claims of these women. As the Minister announced, payments were offered as redress - €50,000 to those who could show they had had a symphysiotomy; €100,000 to those who could link that procedure to ongoing health consequences; €150,000 for pubiotomy; and so on. The Minister referred to the non-adversarial nature of this process. It was also, of course, ex gratia, which is the crucial point.

I could say so much more, but I want to finish on the following point. Women have suffered all their lives with the consequences of a symphysiotomy. It impacts on entire lives, on families and on physical and mental health. This report has not healed the old wounds. In fact, I would say it has opened up new ones.

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