Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many of us present, including the Minister, have stated that the report is imperfect. He said as much to us in the Seanad and said it again here. We are all disappointed with the contradictions. The executive summary does not relate to the testimony in a way. It is cold, as the Minister rightly said.

This is an independent report, not a Government or Oireachtas report, but the Oireachtas now has responsibility to deal with it. Is there a way that we as a Government and the Department can make an official statement about the executive summary stating that we accept the veracity of those testimonies and to give some solace to the women after the fact? Nobody expected the report to give justice. Justice will come in many different ways and justice for one survivor is not justice for other survivors.

Is there a structured mechanism to take in considerations of groups that are not part of the collaborative forum and to move to next steps, redress and all those recommendations? Many groups choose not to be part of the collaborative forum.

Is there a way that we can help and support women who had intellectual disabilities who had children in those mother and baby homes and still survive to this day? Can an independent advocate be appointed?

My priority now, and the Minister has referred to this on several occasions, is the Act. We are disappointed about the destruction of the tapes. I would be interested to hear the opinion of the Attorney General on that. We are not going to find out the methodology behind the report but let us look to the future and see how we can help these women. The survivors are here and we need to act. I would appreciate if we could start now and get the institutional burials legislation and the adoption legislation passed. I reiterate how glad I am that we passed that legislation last year. If we did not, it would be an entirely different conversation today. We would have a blank database and the adoption and tracing legislation would be much more difficult. It was difficult when some members of the committee voted against the protection of that database.

What have we been doing in the past while to move forward with recommendations and even to go beyond the recommendations and have a proper holistic approach to taking care of the needs of these women, survivors and adoptees? What is being done to make sure that we hold up this period of our past and say that this will not be done again and that we cannot let it happen again? What is being done so that we stand not in front of or behind the survivors but beside them to say that this is about them and their memorial? How has the Department moved forward with that? That is the priority and time is of the essence.