Lawyers and academics oppose shredding of symphysiotomy documents

The Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme website has asked applicants to get in touch to tell them whether their application and supporting documents should be returned or shredded.

However, almost 20 lawyers and academics have called on Judge Harding Clark to “reconsider her decision and return all records to all applicants by post, as per the scheme’s terms of reference”.

The call was issued in an open letter published by The Irish Times. You can read it in full on the newspaper’s website.

The signatories include solicitors, leading academics at a range of universities, the executive director of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties and the chairwoman of Survivors of Symphysiotomy.

The letter explains: “There is no guarantee that these records will be accessible in the future to investigators, researchers or even to claimants themselves.

“To shred these data after March 20th, as proposed, is therefore to destroy material that will be needed in any future inquiry (or research) into symphysiotomy.”