Thalidomide survivors: Mediation on issues of financial support and State apology to get under way

A mediation process on calls by Thalidomide survivors for financial supports and a State apology is to get under way this week.

The mediation, chaired by former head of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey, has been agreed by the Government and about 40 survivors who suffered health defects in the womb after their mothers were prescribed the drug more than 60 years ago.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar acknowledged at the weekend that Ireland’s Thalidomide survivors “deserve an apology”, though he stopped short of confirming the State would give one.

He was responding to calls from survivors and their families on The Late Late Show on RTÉ Television on Friday night, who renewed their appeal for a State apology over delays in removing Thalidomide from the market.

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The drug was prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s to treat morning sickness but caused major birth defects, including shortened limbs, damaged organs, nerves, eyesight and hearing.

It was withdrawn internationally in 1961 and, nine months later, in Ireland. In at least five cases, the drug was administered here after it had been withdrawn in the UK and Germany.

[ Taoiseach pledges to work with thalidomide survivors to resolve issues around supports ‘once and for all’ ]

Mr Varadkar said he felt “very sorry” for survivors, and committed his Government to engagement with survivor groups through the process chaired by Mr Mulvey.

“I don’t think anyone can but be sorry for the experience survivors of Thalidomide have had. Certainly as Taoiseach, I’m very sorry for the experience they have had and their families have had. It is important to say though that this is a medicine that was used 50 or 60 years ago in Ireland at a time when the State didn’t regulate any medicines in the way that it does now,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said compensation by the pharmaceutical companies had been paid and continued to be paid to survivors, and that the government had put financial supports in place, including medical cards, to help survivors.

Pressed on whether a State apology would be forthcoming, Mr Varadkar said: “I think they do deserve an apology; the apology of course has come from the company that made the medicine.

“At the time the State didn’t regulate medicines in the way that it does now. But I don’t think it’s just about an apology, I think we need to sit down with them and talk about what else we can do.”

He said the issue should be looked at “in the round”.

[ ‘We want this to be over’: Thalidomide survivors meet Taoiseach ]

A court case taken by survivors against the State and the manufacturer and Irish distributor of Thalidomide has stalled for years, partly due to issues around the statute of limitations. A court-appointed mediation process under former attorney general John Rogers also came to naught.

Most survivors were covered by a 1975 settlement with the drug manufacturer Grünenthal and the State, but the Irish Thalidomide Association (ITA) said this was predicated on survivors having a short life span, and does not take account of their continuing complex health needs.

[ Ireland’s thalidomide survivors: ‘The State is only waiting for us to die’ ]

“The monthly payments that ‘acknowledged’ survivors do receive were last increased in 2009 and do not reflect the reality of the needs of catastrophically disabled survivors and the premature onset of old age caused by Thalidomide damage, necessitating the overuse and misuse of disabled limbs,” ITA spokeswoman Finola Cassidy said.

The group also represents about 12 “unacknowledged” survivors of Thalidomide who were not covered by the 1975 settlement but have been diagnosed as such by a medical expert.