James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Byrne's point, it is critically important that we learn from mistakes of the past. The only way we will do that is by having a good, long, hard look at what happened to so many people in the past which was so hurtful. In response to Deputy Troy's points, this is a Supplementary Estimate and has nothing to do with budget 2015. He argued that many people do not like the term "mother and baby home" but I have met a range of groups, none of which made that point to me. I might also point out that Deputy Troy said that we are not listening but I met with all of the groups involved and made a point of doing so. Almost all of them also met my predecessor. I believe that we have listened. It might be pre-judging the terms of reference to argue that people still have issues or feel that we have not heard what they have to say. All submissions have been read but the Government has not made a final decision on the terms of reference yet.

This is time-sensitive and we want to get this done in a timely fashion. We certainly cannot afford to be repeating the investigations carried out by the child abuse commission. On the question of timing, a draft order will be discussed in the Oireachtas after it has been approved by Government. Other matters will be dealt with on foot of the decision of Cabinet, which I cannot pre-empt. I thank everyone for their forbearance and co-operation. We are all keen to deal with these matters as quickly as possible and to ensure that the commission can do its work in an unfettered fashion so that it can answer the questions people have asked. We are very conscious of the age profile of many of those concerned.