Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In December 2017, I raised with the Tánaiste the case of Anthony Cole, the first person to bring an action concerning Lariam. That action had just been settled after the State sparing no expense in assembling a major legal team, with ten days of hearings over five months, before the Government threw in the towel.

The second Lariam case, of Mr. Patrick Fedigan, was settled two weeks ago, again on the steps of the court and after enormous cost and delay. What on earth is going on here? Not only is the Government not dealing with the existing cases of Defence Forces personnel who have experienced devastating health consequences as a result of taking Lariam but it is actually potentially adding to their number by continuing to force soldiers to take Lariam. That is despite their wishes and a motion passed by this House.

As a result, we have almost 300 loyal but damaged men and women who served this State proudly, and whose papers have been lodged with the courts, facing a lengthy and costly application process before the State will eventually have to settle, as it will. There is not one word about redress and compensation to end this madness. It is a crazy situation. When these cases get to the courts they are, of course, then likely to encounter the 83 cases which have been also been lodged before the courts in respect of Pandemrix. Those cases are mainly the result of children who developed narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine. Those suffering families have had to fight this State for discovery for years. When I raised this with the Taoiseach last year, he said he would instruct the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to bring forward the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine scheme to respond to the needs of people with disabilities arising from vaccination. He also stated the commitment would be implemented by last year. Where is it? The programme for Government is three years old. This scheme was recommended as early as 2001 and these families have been suffering since 2010. We would be forgiven for thinking that the State is engaged in some clandestine plot to enrich the legal profession at the expense of the public and to the detriment of those whose health has been seriously and negatively impacted upon as a result of State actions. There is no justice and accountability for those people. That is appalling.

While everybody moved on to the latest scandal some weeks ago - I think John Delaney was the flavour of the month this time - Dr. Scally produced his latest report. He outlined in that report the problems with the open disclosure approach which, he stated, remains in place despite being judged to be deeply flawed. It is not good enough for the Tánaiste to state the Government is working on it. It has been foostering around with these issues for more than 11 years. We had succeeded in having mandatory open disclosure before this Government removed it two years ago. When will the Government stop talking about doing things and actually start to do them? I was about to say talk is cheap but it is not cheap for the victims or the State. It is about time the Government started delivering on some of the things it tells us it is dealing with.

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