'He doesn't know the facts': Thalidomide survivors criticise Taoiseach's comments

There was a deliberate choice not to withdraw the drug from the market when the dangers emerged as other jurisdictions, including the US, had done, Fiona Cassidy said. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The Taoiseach's recent comments on the Thalidomide scandal are being branded as "misleading" by survivors. 

Speaking on Saturday, Leo Varadkar said he was sorry for those affected, but that it happened "at a time when the State didn’t regulate any medicines in the way that it does now".

Thalidomide, a sedative drug used to treat morning sickness, was prescribed and also sold over the counter without a prescription to pregnant women in Ireland from 1959.

Over 51,000 packets of Softenon, the biggest seller in Ireland, were sold here in 1961.

The drug caused thousands of miscarriages and babies who survived the pregnancy were born with catastrophic injuries — missing or foreshortened limbs, organ damage, deafness, and painful nerve-ending damage.

Thalidomide was withdrawn internationally in 1961 after it was found to cause major birth defects but it was not withdrawn in Ireland until the following year.

Appearing on the Late Late Show on Friday night, Thalidomide survivors said the State had failed them as children and is still failing them now as they called for a State apology and adequate compensation.

"This has been the fight of our lives, for all our lives and our parents’ lives, and it is time the Government ended the battle with us," said Ireland’s youngest ‘acknowledged’ Thalidomide survivor John Stack.

When questioned about plans for a State apology, 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."

He added that compensation by the pharmaceutical companies had been paid and his Government had put financial supports in place, including medical cards, to help survivors.

Responding to the Taoiseach's comments, the Irish Thalidomide Association (ITA) said he "does not understand the message if he is making a statement like this. He doesn't know the facts".

They said his comments were misleading as he stated that everyone was compensated by the pharmaceutical company and that the State had put in financial support, including medical cards.

"As stated on the Late Late Show, we represent a small group of people who have never been recognised by the State and have never received a penny and don’t have medical cards," spokesperson for the ITA, Finola Cassidy said.

He is wrong to lead the Nation to believe otherwise.

"If he is referring to the ‘acknowledged’ survivors then the payments were based on a lump sum received in 1975 when the State believed they could “get away” with - according to Government briefing documents - the small amount of payment given as the children were not expected to live that long."

Monthly payments provided to 'acknowledged' survivors have not been increased since 2009 which the ITA said no longer reflects the needs of the catastrophically disabled survivors and the premature onset of old age caused by Thalidomide damage necessitating the overuse and misuse of disabled limbs.

Mr Varadkar's claim that the State didn't regulate medicines at the time ignores the fact that there was a deliberate choice not to withdraw the drug from the market when the dangers emerged as other jurisdictions, including the US, had done, Ms Cassidy said.

"It was a conscious decision to allow pregnant mothers run the risk of innocently damaging their own children.

"The State and the Department of Health have been wheeling out the same old lines for years."

The ITA did welcome the decision to establish a Thalidomide engagement process which will be chaired by independent mediator, Kieran Mulvey.

"From our side the Irish Thalidomide Association has done nothing but seek meaningful talks as the solution to finding closure on this 61-year-old blithe on the Irish State's continued treatment of its vulnerable children," said Ms Cassidy.