{"id":3340,"date":"2023-11-29T13:22:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T13:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=3340"},"modified":"2023-11-29T13:22:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T13:22:39","slug":"government-must-follow-australias-lead-by-apologising-to-thalidomide-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-must-follow-australias-lead-by-apologising-to-thalidomide-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must follow Australia\u2019s lead by apologising to Thalidomide survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland must follow the example set by Australia by issuing an official State apology to Thalidomide survivors, according to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Cairns, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on disability, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe national apology given by Australia\u2019s Prime Minister this week is a welcome recognition of the decades of suffering experienced by Thalidomide survivors and their families in his country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Ireland, there are around 40 Thalidomide survivors who have been left waiting for an official State apology and adequate redress for the birth defects they suffered as a result of the morning sickness drug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThalidomide was prescribed in this country from 1957 but was withdrawn internationally in November 1961. Ireland failed to withdraw the drug for a further nine months and, incredibly, it remained on the shelves of some rural pharmacies and in household medicine cabinets until 1964.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe State clearly failed in its duty to protect pregnant women and their babies by not withdrawing the drug immediately, and by failing to conduct an effective recall of Thalidomide in the years that followed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThalidomide survivors have waited far too long for justice. The State must provide a long overdue apology and appropriate compensation for a medical scandal that had devastating consequences and continues to impact survivors today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>November 29, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland must follow the example set by Australia by issuing an official State apology to Thalidomide survivors, according to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns. Deputy Cairns, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on disability, said: \u201cThe national apology given by Australia\u2019s Prime Minister this week is a welcome recognition of the decades of suffering experienced by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[400,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government must follow Australia\u2019s lead by apologising to Thalidomide survivors - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-follow-australias-lead-by-apologising-to-thalidomide-survivors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government must follow Australia\u2019s lead by apologising to Thalidomide survivors - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ireland must follow the example set by Australia by issuing an official State apology to Thalidomide survivors, according to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns. 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