Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and our Malaysian colleagues for those kind words.

The abuse, neglect, beating and mistreatment by tens of thousands of children by church-run institutions in this country over decades with the collusion or facilitation of the State is a dark chapter of shame in the history of our country. Thousands and thousands of people who survived those industrial schools, orphanages and other forms of residential institution where this abuse, neglect and incarceration took place are elderly now and most of them have been marked indelibly with the scars of the abuse, punishment and neglect that the church and State inflicted on them. They have fought long and hard for that redress. I think when Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach, he initially apologised for the abuse of these children, and they were children, in their tens of thousands by church and State in this way. I do not know how many taoisigh ago that was but it is quite a long time. We have a Bill that is supposed to be about providing supports for the survivors of that residential abuse which the representatives of the survivors say should not proceed because it has failed them and because the Government has not listened to what the survivors of this abuse said and asked for.

That is pretty damning. Of course, they know best. I only know from individual accounts. I refreshed my memory by reading some of the documents provided by the Library and Research Service and the comments that are being made by the representatives of the survivors in the media over the last few days. It is surely pretty damning that the people for whom we are supposed to be providing the services, supports and redress are saying that this Bill is so inadequate that it should not proceed and that we should stop it until the Government actually takes on board what the survivors and their representatives have asked for in the form of true redress and justice for the people who suffered so horribly.

It is worth reminding ourselves, as I did when preparing for this discussion, of the level of suffering that these children went through. The facts are really shocking. Some 90% of those who went through the institutions had survived multiple forms of mistreatment, especially physical and emotional abuse and neglect. Almost 50% had suffered sexual abuse by members of the church, employees. Moreover, the failure of the State to properly inspect and oversee these institutions where this sexual, emotional and physical abuse was endemic and systematic over decades.

Four out of five had psychological disorders, more than double the rate in the rest of the community. The rate of psychological disorders was more than double that in international community samples. It was much worse than anywhere else in the world. More than half reported one or more trauma-related symptom in the six months prior to the survey being done. They reported symptoms such as avoidance, while 50% suffered flashbacks and 38% suffered anxiety. Three quarters had experienced one or more very significant lifelong problem, including educational disadvantage, unemployment, homelessness, self-harm and so on.

The ramifications for the individuals roll on for decades and into old age. As a result, the Trutz Haase report, commissioned by Caranua, found an incredible concentration of disadvantage among the survivors, who were overwhelmingly working class children – the children of poorer families. The research findings concluded that the current living conditions of survivors are highly disadvantaged when compared with the population as a whole. More than half of all survivors are living in the most disadvantaged 20% of areas, suggesting that their experience of institutional residential care in Ireland may have compounded and certainly did not alleviate any baseline risks of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion they may have inherited as a result of their social origins.

We know that from talking to the survivors. We have let them down badly. According to them, only four out of the 24 recommendations made by their consultative forum have been taken up, including some of those that have been enumerated by previous speakers. If you have suffered that much damage, it is indelibly marked. These people were children, but it has rolled through at every level in terms of education, health - physical and mental – housing, their ability to gain employment and their requirement for other supports. The damage and trauma they suffered has rolled on to their children and sometimes grandchildren. In spite of the intergenerational impact of that abuse and neglect we have not listened to them. We have not recognised that they have complex and specific needs. They are human beings. That was the whole point. We took a minimalist, one-size-fits-all approach rather than recognise the individual, specific trauma that people have suffered and provide the supports necessary to give them redress from the State and the institutions that failed them. That means listening to them in the first instance, because they were so neglected, ignored, incarcerated, brutalised and so on, and developing redress and supports that actually match their individual needs. It also means giving redress for the terrible suffering and neglect they have experienced.

That brings up the question of the Health (Amendment) Act card, not just an enhanced medical card. It also brings up the question of housing, the related issue of income – not just a miserable €3,000 payment but one that is related to their actual needs, the cost of living, in particular as they get older, the types of individually necessary counselling supports - some people mentioned psychotherapy - and educational access and supports in order to address the damage that has been done.

I do not know at this stage if the Minister will listen to the survivors, but it would be a terrible travesty and make a mockery of the apologies we get periodically after people suffered, were neglected or ignored by the State - these grandiose moments of State apology with a huge media fanfare, but when we look at what happens after, we fail people. We do not follow through on the apologies and give them what they need.

As I mentioned on the day Simon Harris was nominated and elected Taoiseach by this House, I do not know many of the details but I am still not clear what he is going to do about the 50 children who suffered abuse in the Westbank Orphanage, which was excluded from the supports provided by this Bill and from the mother and baby homes redress scheme. They suffered abuse, neglect, beatings and were injected with substances. Why are they being excluded? Are we going to give them what they ask for, and include them in a proper redress scheme and the supports they need to make atonement for what the institutions of church and State did to these children? I hope the Minister will listen to the voices of the survivors. They are the ones that matter.

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