Legal blow to Irish women’s hopes over faulty breast implants

The compensation hopes of thousands of Irish women who were fitted with faulty breast implants have been dealt a legal blow.

A French appeals court has ruled a German company does not have to compensate more than 1,000 French women fitted with the leak-prone PIP implants, overturning a lower court decision.

The earlier court decision had led lawyers to claim Irish women could receive €10,000-€15,000 in compensation arising from physical and psychological damage after their silicone gel implants were discovered to be unsafe.

Up to 10,000 Irish women who received implants at home or overseas were said to have been affected.

PIP, the French manufacturer of the implants, has gone bankrupt and its chief executive has been jailed for four years for aggravated fraud.

Interim payment

Last November, the French courts ordered an interim payment of €3,000 each to a group of French women who took proceedings against a German company, TUV, which certified the product.

Lawyers representing affected women in Ireland teamed up with legal firms in the UK and France to pursue a similar claim in the French courts. This would now appear to have no chance of success.

In a statement, the appeal court said TUV had “respected the obligations incumbent upon it as a certifying organisation”.

The Health Service Executive has told the affected women it will fund their removal on medical grounds, but will not pay for replacement implants.

An estimated 300,000 people in 65 countries were affected by the scandal, and over 3,000 cases of undesirable effects were reported.

Over half of all PIP implants in Ireland were fitted by the Harley Medical Group, which has gone into liquidation.

The other two clinics which fitted them were Shandon Street Hospital in Cork and Clane General Hospital, Co Kildare.