The four women at the centre of a legal battle with the South Western Area and the East Coast Area Health Boards over the provision of a free home birth service, were "very disappointed" at having costs awarded against them, their solicitor said yesterday.
Mr Colm MacGeehin said it was was particularly disappointing that the women, who he said were on low incomes, "could not test a piece of public law on a matter of public concern" without the threat of such punitive costs. The women are facing an estimated bill of €250,000 following the Supreme Court decision earlier this month that the two boards had no statutory obligation to provide a free home birth service.
Asked whether the four woman had the means to pay such a bill, he said: "Well no. The reason why they went to court in the first place was that the women did not have the means to afford home birth services privately."
Though the women had not yet decided whether to appeal to the European Court of Justice, Mr MacGeehin said their case would be based on the 1988 Supreme Court judgment in the case of Sandra Spruyl versus the Southern Health Board, in which the Court found unanimously in Ms Spruyl's favour that a home birth service should be provided free of charge.
"The health boards around the country understood that judgment in the way we did and were implementing it. It was the two eastern area boards that decided to challenge it, and very successfully."
Describing as "regrettable" yesterday's judgment, Mr MacGeehin said it was becoming "increasingly difficult" to test public law on matters of public interest.
