FF group to demand State apology for thalidomide victims

A FIANNA Fáil delegation will demand a State apology and Government compensation for thalidomide victims when the parliamentary party meets today.

Seventeen TDs and Senators have signed a motion calling on Minister for Health Mary Harney to “positively review the plight” of the State’s 32 thalidomide survivors following the recent announcement of a €1.1 million compensation package for Northern Ireland’s victims.

Ms Harney is meeting the Irish Thalidomide Association today.

Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche and Minister of State for Health Áine Brady were among the Fianna Fáil representatives who attended a meeting with the association in Leinster House last Wednesday, which was organised by Senator Mary White.

The association’s spokeswoman Finola Cassidy said: “We were so encouraged by the level of empathy and sympathy we received from Fianna Fáil and the support that has been promised within the Fianna Fáil party. What we have asked them to do is to fix this on their watch.”

Cabinet files from 1973 and 1974, indicate the drug, which was used to treat morning sickness and resulted in thousands of children being born deformed, was withdrawn in December 1961 by pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal.

The Department of Health did not notify doctors and hospitals until July 1962.

Referring to the government’s response to the scandal at the time, Ms Cassidy said: “The mindset of the politicians at the time was to get this off the table”.

The motion has been tabled by Kildare South TD Seán O Fearghail and Ms White. “The State has a culpability in this yet it seems, through its agencies, to have put them through the mill in terms of giving them the supports they need.

“There is a challenge here for Government to respond to a very small cohort of people,” Mr O Fearghail said.

He said everyone knew there were pressures on the exchequer, but added: “There is never a bad time to do the right thing.”

The motion has also been signed by deputy Mary O’Rourke of Longford-Westmeath, Dublin South East TD Chris Andrews, Cork East deputy Ned O’Keeffe, Limerick West TD John Cregan, Maire Hoctor of Tipperary North,Mayo’s Beverley Flynn, Michael Woods of Dublin North-East and Tipperary South’s Mattie McGrath.

Senators Geraldine Feeney, Ann Ormond, Celia Keaveney, Jim Walsh, Martin Brady, Maria Corrigan and James Carroll have also signed the delegation’s motion.