Dr. Mary Lodato:

These are my personal views based on my experience as a survivor and my 20 years of practical and academic work with other survivors of institutional abuse.

The Government should ensure that all others affected by institutional abuse are included in the process of deciding what happens to these records.

Survivors should have immediate unrestricted access to their own complete files. These files belong to them. The current process for accessing files should be redesigned in consultation with survivors. The famous section 28, which inhibits survivors' ability to share their experiences, should be repealed. It is a retraumatising reminder of the authority that church and State held over us. If they can access their files, survivors will be free to share them with their immediate families. Deceased survivors' close relatives should also be able to access their files. These records may allow family members to understand a relative's story when a conversation may be impossible. Access can have a therapeutic effect by allowing people to come to terms with intergenerational trauma.

Once access for survivors and families has been secured, the archives must be opened to researchers and the public. This should be done as soon as possible so that survivors and researchers can work together to enrich the National Archives with oral history. The history of institutional abuse in Ireland is dominated by the perspectives of the professional classes, including doctors, lawyers and religious orders. Our files correct this power dynamic. They tell what happened to us as children. They also show how we were dismissed and undermined when we applied for redress.

Survivors can decide for themselves if they want their files to be anonymised or redacted before they are disclosed to others. Personally, I am proud to be a survivor and would be proud to have my full story in the National Archives. The proposed 75-year sealing of our files creates cynicism. It makes it look as if the State is hiding something. This State has already robbed survivors of so much and profited from our suffering. It must give us our history and let us share it with the nation. I understand that our narratives can seem threatening to State bodies and expose them to further scrutiny. However, survivors still live with shame and secrecy imposed on them. They urgently need a process of healing and reconciliation, and this requires willingness to confront the past. Only openness and transparency can help society to take responsibility for its part in the abuse of women and children. If we do not confront our past, we are condemned to repeat it.