Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This has been a very powerful engagement and it was important for us to have the opportunity to engage with the witnesses. We listened to the expertise and particularly to the voices of the survivors.

It is one thing getting and reading submissions; it is another hearing them in the witnesses' voices and having the opportunity to ask questions and to listen to them. It has been a very humbling experience. I know I speak for all the members when I say I completely honour the witnesses for what they have gone through. At the very least, as recommended in the Ryan commission report and committed to by the Government under the Magdalen redress scheme, there should absolutely be a memorisation in the form of a national archive regarding what has happened in order that we cannot wipe this out of history.

Is it okay if we send all the witnesses' statements to the Minister? As this was of a sensitive nature, we had decided we would publish the report when we had the opportunity to discuss it further. We were not going to include some of the statements just because of the sensitivities involved, but is it okay if we send everything to the Minister? We feel that that absolutely is important. I take it everyone assents to that.