Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Two very interesting suggestions came from here. One was the idea of giving a payment in the form of a pension. It is a simple idea that would ensure benefits actually reached the people concerned. The second idea would be to look at a free travel pass for those survivors in the UK who come back to Ireland. It strikes me that these suggestions are eminently sensible and probably completely out of bounds. The one thing I see running through the Department's response in all of this is to ensure there remains a culture of dependency. God forbid that we would ever empower these people. Deputy Catherine Martin made a good point about the most recent suggestions, which tells us that they are still not listening. I have no doubt that I and everyone around this table will do our best through our report to make it clear that they have to listen. Perhaps the witnesses could explain why they think the State, including the people who run the Government and the people who run the Department of Education and Skills, are so determined to make sure they will not empower the victims of the State.