Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about the mother and baby homes and the vaccine trials. According to reports, there were more than 1,000 babies and young children involved in these vaccine trials, that is 1,135 persons. Those babies and young children were taken from six mother and baby homes including Bessborough in Cork city. This happened between 1930 and 1973. There was no parental consent. The babies and young children were tested in these trials for vaccines relating to diphtheria, measles and four-in-one vaccines. Some of their mothers at the time of the trials were suffering from real mental health and psychiatric issues, and some of the children were Down’s syndrome children. The mothers were not present at the trials and the trials were in breach of the regulatory and ethical standards of the time. Those babies and young children were guinea pigs and there were real financial benefits from the companies which worked with the orders to organise those trials.

In passing, I make the point on the window that this provides into the reality of capitalism that would put profit above all else and use children in these vaccine trials without the consent of their parents in this way. The companies involved in the trials were Glaxo and Wellcome, companies which merged to form GlaxoSmithKline in 2000. That company has not paid one penny of compensation. Can the Minister say if that company has been asked for compensation? Has he called them in and asked them for compensation in this case? This company or companies have received large sums of money from this State in grant aid, where the IDA has been mentioned and so on, down through the years. It should make a very significant contribution to this redress fund. If it does not, the State should act to ensure that it does so.

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