Ms Mary Harney:

I have come here today to urge the committee to reconsider the Retention of Records Bill 2019. I appeal to the committee as one of the thousands of people who will be directly and seriously affected by the Bill.

I began my search for my personal records in 1965. I did so through visits and direct correspondence with the mother and baby institution in which I was born in 1949. Even though I was initially denied information on myself and my mother, I persisted. In 1967, I received a letter with details of my mother's name and address and other family details. With this information I was able to trace and contact my mother.

In the 1980s and 1990s, I continued my search for my personal records. I was granted open access to legal documents and records that show I was illegally fostered at the age of two and a half. By the time I was five, I was removed from the foster mother and committed by a court to an industrial school until I was 16 years old. The documents also state that the whereabouts of my mother was unknown, yet according to my mother, the nuns knew exactly where she was. She had been deported by them to the UK to work in a laundry operated by a religious order. Department of Education documents revealed that the foster mother had continued to influence the direction of my life. This went as far as requesting that my detention be extended. Her request was granted by the Department of Education inspector, contrary to the court order. I could not have constructed my early life and influencing events without access to personal records.

If we fast forward to 2005 and beyond, under freedom of information legislation, I sought information related to the circumstances of my fostering. The redacted document I received told me nothing. The difference between seeking information in the 1960s and seeking it in the 2000s was that my chances went from 80% to 0%. In effect, were I to begin this search today, it would be impossible for me to receive any of the information I now hold.

When I testified before the Residential Institutions Redress Board I did so in good faith. I was not informed that my statement was to be sealed for 75 years. There are absolutely no valid moral or constitutional reasons the testimony of thousands of people and the records of the Ryan commission of investigation should be destroyed or sealed. If this Bill passes, it will make survivors of the industrial schools invisible once more. It will create another generation of the disappeared of Ireland. I ask the committee not to let this travesty of justice continue.