Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I met Finola Cassidy and the Irish Thalidomide Association representatives, along with their legal representatives, in my office a couple of weeks ago. It was a good meeting. I listened very carefully to the concerns expressed. There has been a long history of interventions by Governments in respect of this issue and the people involved. Supports have been provided by previous Governments, and continue to be provided, in terms of monthly payments, eligibility for health services and so on. As the Deputy knows, the company, the Contergan Foundation, provides payments. There is an issue there that we need to work out. Anything additional done by the State should not result in liability on the foundation being taken back, in other words, it should not result in there being no net gain to thalidomide survivors.

During the meeting we teased out a number of approaches that we could take to try to resolve these issues. The Government is not dragging anything out. There are contested issues around liability on this. Ex gratiapayments and so on were made and additional financial assistance was provided in 2010, but arguments have been put forward that they were not of a sufficient scale or the circumstances or context of how those payments were made were not optimal or appropriate. Those arguments have been made to me and to the Minister for Health.

We discussed a number of broad areas. First, there should be a very comprehensive health package. That is one area we said we would discuss. There seems to be some uncertainty around what is available and what, potentially, could be available. We also discussed independent support as people go on in life and broader issues.

The idea emerged from the meeting that we may develop a mediation approach, in the first instance, to tease out a number of issues. I have reverted to the Minister and had discussions with him and the Attorney General on this. I will be back to the Irish Thalidomide Association in response to a proposal that was put on the table as to how we could engage in a meaningful process to try to resolve this issue once and for all.

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