Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The report of the mother and baby homes commission of investigation failed when it concluded that women who entered the homes after 1973 were to be excluded from the statutory redress. The report was never about compensation or redress. It is about recognition of unnecessary feeling of stigma that women such as Alice McEvoy suffered. She spoke passionately in The Irish Times. She said she does not need the money but she knows many others who do. She said it was appalling that the authors excluded those in the post-1973 cohort and I agree with her fully.

I strongly believe GlaxoSmithKline should be asked to contribute financially to the mother and baby homes redress scheme. I believe GlaxoSmithKline has a significant moral obligation to contribute. The involvement of the company in vaccine clinical trials was to its financial benefit overall. The company's engagement with the mother and baby homes and their residents was at best dubious, but in real terms it was unethical and illegal. For example, the Bessborough institutional records show that at least five mothers of children resident in Bessborough who participated in trials had mental health issues.

Another mother was only 17 years old. There was another. I will quote from the report, "It is abundantly clear that ... [this trial] did not comply with the regulatory and ethical standards in place at the time."

These are just two examples, and there are so many others in the report, that paint GlaxoSmithKline in a caring or professional manner. If anything, it is the total opposite. The findings of these trials were of huge financial benefit to what is now GlaxoSmithKline, a major pharmaceutical operation that had turnover of €40 billion in 2019. GlaxoSmithKline should contribute. It has a moral obligation to do so. This Government should immediately start dialogue in that regard. Between 1975 and 1981 GlaxoSmithKline gave £240,000 annually to Irish veterinary research. If it gave triple this figure for each of the 40 years it conducted unethical vaccine trials on children, that would be a proper contribution to the redress scheme by GlaxoSmithKline. A figure in the region of €500 million would be what is expected. The company made €6 billion in profit in 2019, and €500 million represents 1% of its profits over the past ten years.

What I do not want is for these pharmaceutical companies, the Government, the State, the local authorities and the church to bury this in paperwork. These people - survivors and families - have suffered enough. It is time now. There has been wrong upon wrong upon wrong. The report is a shambles. It took all the evidence from these survivors but did not represent it properly in the report. The leaking of this document by the Government was wrong. There has been enough wrongdoing. It is now time to stand up and to make some contribution to these survivors. These people need to be taken to task for their illegal actions, but we do not need this to go on for years upon years. It is now time for the Government to act and to be counted to make sure these survivors get something now that may improve their lives now. I ask the Government not to let this go through years of millions being wasted through legal challenges. The Government should stand up now and pay for the past mistakes of the State.

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