Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to take up something Deputy Crowe said. Why is the Department doing it? I do not understand; perhaps there is something wrong. They are protected in section 28 of the 2002 redress Act. That section prohibits the disclosure and publication. Why are we doing it? It is after the fact here.

Have the witnesses read the submission from the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and their argument against it? Have they read the contribution of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd? They make extraordinary arguments as to why it should not be done. The Oireachtas Library & Research Service has done us a great service. The questions on pages 9 and 10 of its research ask the question that all of the Senators and Deputies here are asking, namely: where is the expectation of confidentiality which people began with and that is now turned into something else? Where is the expectation of one's good name, which again people began with and has now become something else? Where is the expectation of privacy? In fact, 75 years is not a long time because some of them were infants. My mother is 93 and she is fine. The idea appears to be that 75 years is somewhere in the jurassic past.

Perhaps the witnesses would answer some of these questions because it appears as if we have changed A to B and I am wondering about the reason for that. If I organise myself, in situation A, from a confidentiality, good name and right to privacy perspective and that is how I got involved, and then it becomes something else, there are legitimate questions to be asked. I do not know how we got here, although in one way I do. However, I wish to have that question answered, because I would oppose it.