Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 7, to delete lines 5 to 8 and substitute the following:

"'(ia) will investigate the role of the courts and the executive arm of Government which exercised statutory powers under the Children Acts and will inquire into the manner in which children were placed in, as day students or residents and the circumstances in which they continued to be students or residents in, institutions during the relevant period,',".

This series of amendments follows from the debate on the role of the Department of Education and Science as the sponsoring Department and the requirement to construe references to "the Minister" as a reference to the Taoiseach, as proposed in amendment No. 1. The amendment proposes to include in the investigation the role of the Government and courts in the cycle of events which led to children being systematically abused in homes and schools.

The former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, promised that all areas, apart from the courts, would be open to examination by the commission. The Bill as currently drafted backtracks on even those commitments. The point must be made that the State has a responsibility and its failure to look after children must not just be acknowledged but examined in detail. It is one thing to offer assurances here but the work of the Laffoy commission showed the Department of Education and Science stalling and delaying access to documentation. We have a chance to make it clear that the Government and its institutions will play a full role in the commission's work. The best way to achieve this is to state it clearly in the Bill. Anything less will leave the door open for backsliding and avoidance of responsibility.

I have talked to many people about this, including people I grew up with in Rathfarnham who wound up in institutions such as Daingean for petty reasons. All those people were hurt and had changed as a result of their experience. Those who are still alive carry their anger to this day.

After the Taoiseach's apology, people thought the can of worms that had been opened in this area of Irish life would be fully investigated, but unfortunately that has not been the case. People talk about their anger and frustration, and the delay with the Laffoy Commission has added to that. Many of them want to tell their story but have not had the opportunity.

I spoke to a man who was put in an institution after the death of his mother. After a year and a half, an uncle started to collect him for visits and he was seriously assaulted from the age of three and a half until he ran away to England at age 16. He used to return to the institution with cuts and bruises, having been beaten black and blue by his uncle, but the man was still allowed to take him on visits.

I passed one orphanage as a child where the orphans always looked very sad. A girl who was in that orphanage told me how a priest who had abused other children was sent to the institution and given a key to the dormitories. This girl's father was still alive but, for whatever reason, the State took the decision whereby she ended up in the institution. She lives with the resultant problems to this day. She is extremely angry at a system that allowed an abuser to move from one place to another and to abuse her, destroying her childhood. She is a young mother now and she told me that the most important thing to her was that neither her child nor any other child would go through a similar experience.

Other people who spoke to me ended up in prison. That was how they reacted to what had been done to them. They were angry with the system, the State and the officialdom that would allow this to happen. They want to open this can of worms and find out why judges sent people to institutions, in some cases for mitching school, robbing orchards or stealing a bike. These were petty crimes that would not have attracted such punishment in a more civilised society.

Some people told of how they spoke to the gardaí, to doctors who were called in to investigate bruising and to visitors to institutions, but no one listened. Society did not listen then and these people now want us to listen to their stories. They do not want to have to tell them behind closed doors. They also want the State and its institutions that were responsible for the theft of their childhood, the most grave crime outside of murder, to be held to account.

Many of these people buried their pain, turning to drink or drugs, and some committed suicide. Those whom I spoke to were conscious that many of their friends from the institutions have never had the opportunity to tell their story, making it even more important that they are allowed to do it now to bring closure. They want to understand why a civilised State could allow this to happen.

This amendment calls for the investigation of the role of the courts and the executive arm of Government which exercised statutory powers under the Children Acts and for the commission to inquire into the manner in which children were placed in institutions as day students or residents and the circumstances under which they continued to be students or residents in the institutions during the relevant period.

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