Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

What we are seeking to achieve in these proposals is to have the actual words of both those who gave testimony before the confidential committee and other survivors of these institutions on the record and for that to form part of the historical record. It is not just an archive that we are looking to create here. This is going to be part of the wider Government response in the centre for research and remembrance, which we hope to base in Seán McDermott Street. It will be designed by experts who have the most knowledgeable approach to oral history and to the communication of sensitive issues such as these, as well as about how the actual words of survivors can be conveyed to the public and how they can stand as part of the historical record and as part of the history of what happened in these institutions.

Senator Seery Kearney rightly says that one of the issues that impacted on survivors was the legalistic approach to the testimony that they gave. What I want to avoid and what I am seeking to avoid in this proposal is going down that strictly legalistic route again. I am trying to provide a forum where the literal words of survivors form part of our record. As the Senator says, 550 people went before the confidential committee and for some of them it was a very traumatic experience. They set out what happened to them in these institutions. The only evidence of that on the record are these condensed paragraphs that are in the report. Sometimes, it is one person’s story that has been condensed and sometimes a number of stories have been condensed into one. I know from survivors who have written to me and who have spoken to me that that is a source of anger and that their own experience is not being expressed here.

We have an opportunity here to get their written transcript or the taped transcript of their testimony through a subject access request. Then we can allow that to form part of the lived experience initiative; we can do that and allow them to add extra material, or we can let them re-record their own lived experience. It is also important that this is open to others as well. Again, we do not want to just narrow this down to the individuals who gave testimony. There are other people who have come forward following the huge publicity the issue of mother and baby institutions has received over the past two years and who now wish their history to be recorded as part of this as well. That is why we are taking this approach to not go a legalistic route, as was adopted in the end regarding the testimony given before the confidential committee. Instead, we are going for this broader route that is informed by oral communications and that is trauma-informed to allow for their words to stand as part of the history.