Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and the rest of their group. It was my pleasure to meet them during the summer and I want to acknowledge the efforts made by Deputy Hannigan and Deputy Ferris in making the rest of us aware of their organisation and their history. While it was a pleasure to meet them, I was sorry that we were meeting in such circumstances and that they had such a tragic story to tell about their history. I was deeply moved and shocked by the stories they told and when I mentioned it to other colleagues, I found that people really were not aware of this. It is a story that we must talk about, on top of all the other tragic stories. It needs to be heard, just as all the others did. Having read the witnesses' submission and having spoken to them, I know their experiences were truly appalling. Perhaps they might like to expand on how their experiences were different to the experiences of their peers within the institutions.