Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting members of the Irish Thalidomide Association who attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children. Some of us remember first-hand the tragedy that struck those innocent victims within the womb when their mothers unwittingly took the drug, thalidomide, for morning sickness in the early 1960s. It was a drug that was wholly untested yet licensed for sale in this State. Many babies did not survive the pregnancy and many others died in infancy, leaving a legacy that spreads much further than the tiny number of 32 survivors. They are survivors in the true sense of the word. It is extraordinary how many of them have made such valiant efforts to lead normal lives.

I listened to the four representatives speak yesterday. Believe it or not, because some of the thalidomide children were not able to be catered for in their own homes or in schools, they were sent to industrial schools. Two of the thalidomide survivors who spoke to the committee yesterday were sent to industrial schools. Maggie Woods cried as she told us what she had to go through. This month, the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety in the North, Michael McGimpsey, gave a package of £1.1 million to the 18 survivors of thalidomide there.

The compensation at the time was very small because the State did not believe that the children would survive. The representatives of the thalidomide victims asked if they could come to the Seanad to speak. I explained that we do not have that facility but that I would speak on their behalf. I call on the Government to give a decent financial package to the survivors of thalidomide. Their bodies are ageing much faster than ours. They have exerted themselves so much physically and emotionally, they are getting diseases in their 50s that people would not normally get until their 70s. The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, should come to the House. The members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children promised yesterday that we would do everything we could on behalf of the Irish thalidomide survivors.