Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that the title of the Minister's speech today is "illegal birth registrations" and the fact that she has used that strong terminology. I understand from the person who works in my office that is not what is going out. The term "incorrect" is going out, but the title of the speech is "illegal birth registrations" and I welcome that. I also welcome the Minister's announcement on 29 May. That is the day on which my mother died many years ago. I cannot imagine coping with a false registration of the death or birth in addition to the grief. I will be coming back to that in a minute. Having looked at the documents St. Patrick's Guild had given her quite some time before, which is a point I will also come back to, the Minister announced on 29 May that there were 126 cases of illegal registration in the period between 1946 and 1969. Nobody was shocked by that. The shock came because it had taken so long. My additional shock came because she made that announcement through a press conference rather than coming into the Dáil, the democratic forum, and presenting her findings in context. I have a difficulty with that. I want to work with the Minister and believe in her bona fides. I would have been helped in that if she had come in and explained the situation to us. I understand that the documents from St. Patrick's Guild had been with Tusla since 2016. The Minister then made an announcement in 2018 without putting it in context to explain the delay.

As I have done every time I have stood up on this subject, I will again quote from briefing papers that were given to the highest officials in the HSE with a note that said they should go all the way up to the Minister. In respect of the mother and baby home and Bessborough, and in the context of the Magdalene laundry, where information came up the people in charge said that it was beyond their scope. This is what they highlighted. In both of these cases, that is, in both mother and baby homes, of concern "were interference with birth and death certification which requires further investigation". This was written in October 2012 with a note to send it up to the Minister. This is as a result of the Martin McAleese report and his investigations. "Children, if not the mothers who passed though these systems are likely to still be alive and at the very least" this should be investigated. It goes on and on to say that this is a serious issue. In addition I will quote one more little thing from one of the notes on 12 October 2012. It is easy to remember. The 12th month in the 12th year:

This may prove to be a scandal that dwarfs other, more recent issues with the Church and State, because of the very emotive sensitivities around adoption of babies, with or without the will of the mother.

A concern is that, if there is evidence of trafficking babies, that it must have been facilitated by doctors, social workers etc., and a number of these health professionals may still be working in the system.

It is more important to send this up to the Minister as soon as possible: with a view to an Inter-Departmental Committee and a fully fledged, fully resourced forensic investigation and State Inquiry.

That note is from 2012, this is 2018. It was six years ago so I hope the Minister will forgive me if I appear cynical. When one comes from a large family one inevitably encounters lots of problems and learns from them. I was not shocked by this nor were any of the other people I know. Indeed survivors have spoken about these illegal practices for years. Conall Ó Fátharta, who deserves an award, spoke about this back in 2010, eight years ago.

He has written about it practically month after month since. The story has arisen time and again and successive Ministers have either failed or refused to act. I cannot count the number of Ministers involved. There were at least three, but a lot more since the 1950s.

There is knowledge and evidence dating from as far back as the 1950s. In the 1990s, the national archivist ,Catriona Crowe, revealed the extent of the problem and the fact that the Department responsible for external affairs had knowledge of the practice as early as the 1950s. Mike Milotte published his book Banished Babies way back in 1997, the year my second child was born. I am not sure whether the Minister read it. I understand it has been reissued lately. It added much to the detail of Catriona Crowe's discovery.

Since 2010, the Irish Examinerjournalist Conall Ó Fátharta has revealed time and again the practice of forced and illegal adoptions carried out by the State and religious and private institutions. Furthermore, I understand that another article by the journalist this week reveals that Tusla has now raised concerns about a further 748 adoption cases from St. Patrick's Guild alone. It is extraordinary that we have to rely on journalists for our information. There is evidence of names being changed, references to payments being made - often of £100 - the placement of children with no corresponding adoption orders and other irregularities. What precisely is the nature of those irregularities?

Tusla has produced three interim reports. All preceded the announcement of 29 May. Where are they? Can we have sight of them? Can that be published? Why have they not been published? The third interim report was prepared on 10 May. It states that 611 children were identified as having been sent overseas and that a deeper review and analysis would be required to track the journey of each infant from birth to the point where he or she left the jurisdiction. I understand that Tusla revealed that, while dealing with tracing inequities since it took possession of St. Patrick's Guild's records in early 2016, it has discovered a significant number of suspected illegal registrations, dating as far back as June 2017. We know that the AAI informed the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2013 that St. Patrick's Guild was aware of several hundred illegal registrations. The response of the Department at the time was nothing short of insulting. It stated that an audit of adoption records was of limited benefit and would yield little useful information. Can one imagine that for a response?

We know this problem goes well beyond St. Patrick's Guild. It is only one of an estimated 180 institutions that facilitated adoptions in this State. Theresa Hiney Tinggal was illegally adopted from an agency outside St. Patrick's Guild. She has been campaigning on this for ten years. Her feeling is that she has been absolutely ignored by three Ministers, whom she names. They were in power prior to the current Minister.

Mr. Paul Redmond, the chairman of Adoption Rights Now, has said the practice in St. Patrick's Guild was far more widespread. Mr. Fergus Finlay stated on "Morning Ireland" recently that he believes every single agency in the State was involved in illegal adoptions. I hope I picked that up incorrectly because it is an extraordinary statement. I do not need to tell the Minister that everybody has a right to know his or her identity. We have an obligation to ensure people who want to know can find out where they come from. It has implications for everything, as the Minister knows. People far more articulate than I am have referred to this in respect of medical history and health implications.

It is imperative that there be a full and thorough investigation of all files concerning St. Patrick's Guild and all adoption agencies. We have no choice. If the Minister wants to start a new role, this is the only way to do it. If she reads the briefing notes from 2012 and still sticks with the old ways, we will be lost. This is a golden opportunity to do it right. Having a targeted sampling exercise is just not good enough. This cannot be a game of chance for the people involved such that some will be lucky enough to be included while others will not. We must include all survivors in a full investigation.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to pushing the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill and ensuring it will pass through the Seanad as expeditiously as possible. I must state, however, that I have a fundamental difficulty with the undertaking that is being asked for. I cannot see myself voting for it, much as I would like to do so. It is huge. It is being stated that there will be no penalty if the undertaking is broken but that sums up Irish society. We make people give an undertaking but if they break it, which is only human, we do not penalise them, thus bringing the law into disrepute. The law has been brought into disrepute on every level. Laws have been ignored and broken and laws have been made up to suit the Church. I cannot tell the Minister what my personal and professional experience and my having the privilege of being a Deputy have done for me. Institutions do not change. They simply lie, cover up and hide unless leadership is shown from the outside and unless they are pushed to do what is required so we can learn. None of this was accidental. This was a deliberate State policy, by and large affecting poor families and poor children. This is the subject of another day's discussion. For today, I ask the Minister never again to make an announcement such as that made at the press conference. If she wants us to work with her, she should set out in the Dáil how the information came to her attention and the nature of the delay from 2016 onwards when she had the information and knew the implications. If she does this, I will happily work with her and she will restore my trust in the system, which is at an all-time low.

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