Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

The horrors outlined in the Ryan report and on the airwaves, as well as the events described by Deputy Kenny this morning, are wretched. One cannot imagine how hard it must have been for the children who suffered these nightmares. I agree with Deputy Jim O'Keeffe and others who have described what happened as a holocaust.

I reiterate the Taoiseach's apology to every person who marched yesterday or who survived institutional abuse. I hope to gain strength from what they have experienced. We owe it to these people to ensure this abuse never happens again. For those who died without having their stories told, we must ensure the perpetrators of this abuse pay a price for the damage they have done. The systemic failures and the State's co-operation in these events must be exposed and addressed. If necessary, we must investigate the records of this House for interventions by Members which may have supported this system.

I welcome the commitment made in the motion to review the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002. The redress board has not satisfied survivors and has in many cases adopted a confrontational attitude. We must make it more co-operative. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Barry Andrews, has begun work on an implementation plan. Deputy Stanton's remarks on the Ombudsman for Children and after-school services should be considered in the context of that plan. Lives and opportunities were taken from these people. The mental abuse they experienced in dealing with physical and sexual abuse can never be quantified. Their needs must be met through the implementation plan.

We will never see it again but we must ensure we have procedures in place across every institution of the State, in our care homes, hospitals, schools, youth clubs and every area in which we entrust the care of children. We must ensure that in 20 or 30 years there will not be a debate in this House exposing something happening now unbeknown to us. If it were to happen again or if anything reminiscent of the scale of this were to happen again then the words expressed in this House today and tomorrow would be untrue and would fail the survivors and the country.

Ireland has been considerably diminished by what has come out and by the activities of so many people so many years ago but which is having such an impact on peoples' lives today; by the cover-up to hide those activities and the systematic manner in which that cover-up was organised across so many pillars of the community. We owe it to the survivors to ensure that we listen to them and give those who did not tell their stories a chance to do so and provide them with a forum for their frustrations and annoyances. Many who did not get involved in the Ryan report deserve a chance and deserve to be heard. I hope that in the implementation plan the Minister of State will have ideas on that.

This House is often criticised for engaging in party politics but the manner in which this motion was agreed and will be passed on an all-party basis is a testament to the shared ambition of all of us here and in the other Chamber to ensure that this does not happen again and to ensure that the horror outlined in the report and more vividly by people speaking about it, does not happen again. The 166 of us here and the 60 Members of the Seanad owe it to the people in the Visitors Gallery and those they represent that as well as combining to vote on this motion we combine to ensure that everything in the motion is delivered, the resources are allocated, the laws are changed and a cover-up never happens again. This motion is only a start. We will be measured on how we progress and deal with it in the days, weeks and years to come. That is the true extent of our response as a Parliament. The people of the country whom we represent expect no less and we must give that united response and continue to do so.

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