Ms Anna Kavanagh:

Yes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Deputies Mattie McGrath, Durkan, Tóibín, Cronin and Paul Murphy, who have done amazing work in raising awareness in the Dáil Chamber about the lack of justice for birth mothers and their children. Deputy McGrath mentioned what a Garda superintendent told him. I did 20 interviews last year with 20 mothers and then asked 20 ladies to do voiceovers for a series called "Justice for Birth Mothers". It was our way of operating around the in camera rule, to give a voice to some of these mothers who were brave enough to trust me and to speak about what was happening to them.

One of the things that came across from speaking to the mothers was the Garda using its powers to take children. One mother went to pick her children up from school but when she got there her children were gone. She was not aware that there had been an ex parte court hearing earlier in the day and gardaí had arrived at the school and taken her children. One grandmother told me that her grandchildren were playing in the garden with their friends when the social workers arrived to take them. The children were screaming and bawling and they ran around the garden. It was horrendous and horrific. The kids were screaming and roaring as they were put into the car and driven away by the social workers.

There are almost 6,000 children in care. We in the alliance do accept there are cases of neglect where children need to be taken into care, but we represent the mothers who are desperate to get their children home. That runs to 700 mothers. There are approximately 6,000 children in care at the minute but we never stop to think about the process of those children being taken into care. One mother told us that her child ran around a block of apartments with the social workers running after her. They eventually caught hold of her and bundled her into a car and she was screaming and roaring.

To me, the most appalling and disgusting thing of all is the removal of newborn babies from mothers who have just given birth. The mother is told ahead of the birth that Tusla is going to go for a care order as soon as the baby is born. The files in the hospital will have "Tusla baby" emblazoned on them before the baby is even born. One mother described how she had to walk a mile to the courthouse two days after she gave birth. She was actually breastfeeding her baby. She had to stand around all day in the court while the criminal cases were heard before her case was called in for hearing. Tusla was granted a care order and she was told to have her baby ready for 2 o'clock the following day. She went back to the hospital and her curtains were pulled back. She had to breastfeed in public; she had no privacy. The following day, she had to bathe and dress her baby and put it into a carrycot. The security man came to the ward at the appointed time and brought her to the back door of the hospital, where there was a car running, with two social workers in it. She had to place the carrycot in the back of the car. The social workers drove off with the baby in the back of the car. She was immediately discharged, with absolutely no supports. You would not do that to an animal. I come from a farming background and I know-----