Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Would it be possible for the Taoiseach to facilitate some discussion among the Whips on the content of the debate on the Ryan report? The leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, proposed that an investigator be appointed to consider the circumstances surrounding the matters referred to by Deputy Woods. Those of us who pursued this in the House have been told many different things. It was interesting to hear him give quite a different take on events to that which I was given, as I recall, when I raised the issue.

More importantly, many of the people who were in these institutions as children have criminal records. It should be possible to rapidly bring before the House a Bill to expunge these records. Many of these people are still alive and it would be important to them and to their families and descendants.

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