Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the visitors to the Visitors Gallery and commend Deputy Jack Chambers on bringing forward this Bill which deals with an issue in which I know he passionately believes. He is a strong advocate for those who have suffered immense harm owing to the scandal of thalidomide. He has laid out in great detail a litany of State failures not only from the 1960s but up until now and which continue to be perpetrated by the State. The Bill seeks to rectify it and I am happy that Fianna Fáil is using its Private Members' time to bring forward the Bill.

The mothers and fathers affected by the thalidomide disaster wanted more than anything to protect their babies; love them, nurture them and, above all, keep them safe. One of the many cruelties of the thalidomide disaster was that the mothers were given a supposedly mild, safe morning sickness pill for pregnant women. The drug, as we know, was called thalidomide. We are familiar with the devastating effects it had on their children. When the truth finally emerged, that thalidomide had caused severe disabilities in children, one would think the State would have stepped in and done everything it could have to help the children and their parents, but, as laid out by Deputy Jack Chambers, it did not step in to help. Not only did it not step in to help, it quickly became part of the problem.

The drug was withdrawn from Irish pharmacies long after it had been withdrawn in other European countries. The Medical Assessment Board of the 1960s refused to acknowledge many of the victims. During the years it transpired that patient files had been hidden. The State has been fairly accused of being involved in a serious and sinister cover-up. For decades many of the thalidomide victims have been denied help and compensation. To this day, the State continues to work against the victims of thalidomide to frustrate their efforts to seek justice. The Bill before us fights back on their behalf.

To this day the State Claims Agency is a co-defendant with the drug company. The State is claiming that the victims cannot avail of justice through the courts because of the Statute of Limitations. Despite causing numerous pauses in the process, in which the State was complicit, the State and the drug company are claiming that for these victims it is too late. They are being told "tough luck" and "you are out of time." We say it is not too late. The Bill seeks to provide that it is not too late. We say it is not too late to make amends or show compassion. We say it is not too late for the State to say thalidomide survivors' legal cases can and will be heard and will not be thrown out on a legal technicality. It is my hope other Members of the Oireachtas in government and opposition will join us in that call and support the Bill.

We want the Government to amend the Statute of Limitations specifically and only in this case for the victims of thalidomide. We want it to include in the existing Act one sentence that could throw open the doors to these victims and indicate to them that the State is no longer going to get in their way and that they can avail of justice through the courts. The Bill seeks to insert the following: "A person shall, in respect of injuries suffered by that person as a result of the ingestion of thalidomide by that person’s mother during the person’s gestation period, be deemed to be under a disability". That is all it would take to grant access to justice for these men and women.

There are many aspects of our past for which we need to make amends and we are discovering more of them every year. It must never be too late to do the right thing or for victims to seek justice. Let us offer thalidomide victims the protection and compassion they have been cruelly denied for so long. Let us allow them to go to court and facilitate them in doing so by making sure the resources are in place in order that they can access their files or whatever else they need. At a minimum, they deserve to be heard in court and the courts will decide in whatever way they choose.

Rather than tell these men and women that regardless of what happened to them and what was done to them they will not have access to justice or their day in court simply because the case has exceeded the Statute of Limitations, let us remove it in this limited case and give these men and women access to the justice they deserve.

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