The US presidential candidate Mr Ralph Nader claimed in 1973 that The Irish Times had withheld an article on the problems associated with thalidomide at a time when the drug was presumed to be safe, according to files in the National Archives.
In 1959, thalidomide was hailed as the "wonder" drug for pregnant women who suffered from acute morning sickness. However, it was withdrawn in the early 1960s when it was discovered that it was causing severe deformities in babies. More than 30 Irish babies were born without limbs, or with stunted limbs, because of it.
Mr Nader, a consumer rights' advocate, was invited by the TD, Dr John O'Connell, to meet with the parents of thalidomide children in January, 1973. His colleague, Mr Donald Ross came to Ireland instead, but before the meeting, Mr Nader wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, accusing the Government of twice neglecting its duty to protect the health and safety of its citizens.
Mr Nader claimed that the Government knew that the drug was dangerous in 1961 yet waited almost seven months - until June 1962 - before telling the public that the drug had been removed from sale and was dangerous.
"Indeed, so pervasive was the Government's silence that The Irish Times editorially deleted from a medical story in January 1962 details of the thalidomide problem, deciding to wait until the Government broke the story," Mr Nader wrote.
He said the Government should have taken immediate steps to remove the drug from sale and distribution, and to warn citizens who might have previously obtained the drug against using it. Mr Nader called for "vigorous intervention" by the Government to ensure that the tragedy would not be compounded "by a tragically meagre settlement". Negotiations were going on with the manufacturer of the drug but the compensation offered was very small.
"We are dismayed at the Government's strange unwillingness to act on behalf of these Irish citizens in the settlement negotiations," Mr Nader wrote.
The letter was acknowledged by the Taoiseach's private secretary, but its contents do not appear to have been challenged by the Taoiseach or his officials.
On the day after the letter was written, a Reuters/UPI report in The Irish Times reported that Mr Ross was coming to Dublin and quoted from parts of the letter to the Taoiseach. However, the article did not include the allegation that the newspaper had suppressed a story on thalidomide.
Around the same time, the Association for Justice for Irish Thalidomide Children claimed that Softenon, a form of thalidomide, had been on sale in some chemist shops several months after it was supposed to be withdrawn from the market.
Mr Joseph Dooley, chairman of the association, wrote to the Taoiseach seeking his support and claiming that the Department of Health was grossly negligent in not warning about the dangers until mid-1962.
Almost 15 years after the thalidomide controversy unfolded, the Government announced that it would be putting its own compensation package in place for thalidomide victims. The package produced in 1975 included a lump sum and a monthly allowance.
Before this was agreed, a memo went from the Department of Health to the Government detailing the Minister for Health, Mr Brendan Corish's view on a package. Weighing up the different methods of payment, his Department's memo said it would "probably sound more impressive" if the money was paid on the basis of the child's disability and was lodged directly into the child's bank account."
However, "the State would be paying considerable sums to children who may be maintained in an institution, free of charge for the rest of their lives", the memo pointed out.