The group representing women damaged by the former Drogheda obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Michael Neary has reacted angrily to news that an inquiry into the whole affair will only examine events since 1986.
This is despite the fact that Dr Neary began working at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in 1974 and women allege he carried out unnecessary Caesarean hysterectomies from the late 1970s on.
A Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry, which concluded last year, found him guilty of professional misconduct over the unnecessary removal of 10 patients' wombs from 1986 on. He has since been struck off the medical register.
The terms of reference for the inquiry now being set up by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, also make it clear that the fees of lawyers who the women might want to represent them will not be met by the State.
Neither will the expenses of expert witnesses they might wish to call.
In addition, the inquiry will not have the power to compel witnesses to attend. This means Dr Neary himself would be unlikely to appear before it.
A spokeswoman for Patient Focus, the group representing women whose wombs were wrongly removed by Dr Neary, yesterday criticised the terms of reference proposed for the inquiry. Patient Focus will meet Mr Martin this afternoon.
She said while the Minister had said from the beginning the inquiry would not be in public, he had always given the impression he was committed to getting to the bottom of what happened.
She said now, on the basis of the terms of reference put forward, Patient Focus felt they had been misled. "It's like they were loathe, despite the impression that the Minister gave us that he was genuinely concerned, to look into this awful story in Drogheda and they have decided to do the bare minimum."