A €45million compensation package for women who had their wombs or ovaries unnecessarily removed by disgraced obstetrician Michael Neary was announced by Minister for Health Mary Harney today.
Up to 172 patients treated by Dr Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda between 1974 and 1998 will be eligible for redress under the scheme.
High Court Judge Mary Harding Clarke, who carried out the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry, will chair the redress board in charge of allocating the compensation.
The scheme will award between €60,000 - €260,000 in the 122 cases of obstetric hysterectomy and between €80,000 - €340,000 in the 50 cases of bilateral oophorectomy where both ovaries were removed.
The scheme is points based and will award younger women with fewer children higher compensation. Applicants will have 60 days within which to make their claim from the start date, which will be advertised by the redress board.
Women seeking compensation will also have to provide independent medical proof that they underwent unnecessary medical procedures, excepting 44 cases whose patient files were stolen.
Announcing details of the scheme, Ms Harney called on the Medical Missionaries of Mary - who were responsible for insuring the hospital during Dr Neary's tenure - to contribute to the compensation scheme.
"I would appeal to the Medical Missionaries of Mary to make a contribution to the former patients of Dr Neary," she said. "It would be very helpful and very much appreciated by the women."
Ms Harney suggested a sum of €7.7 million might be appropriate.
The Minister said she hoped the redress scheme would bring "closure" to Dr Neary's victims.
Ms Harney said the redress scheme was put together on an ex-gratia basis because the State felt a "moral obligation" toward the women affected by Dr Neary's malpractice.
Irish public bodies, Allianz and the Medical Protection Society had contributed €7.7 million she said, but "the bulk of the money here would be from the tax payer". "The State did not have to do this. This was a very exceptional case," she added.
Judge Clarke conducted the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry into the high rate of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out at the hospital between 1974 and 1998.
Dr Neary was suspended by the Irish Medical Council in 1999 and struck off the Register of Medical Practitioners in 2003.