Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to address the Bill. While I recognise what the Labour Party is doing by presenting this Bill, it is clearly an act of engagement in this debate. I hope the Labour Party Members will be able to agree among themselves in a manner that does not require the House to be divided on this issue. The legislation they seek to bring forward from their perspective is feeding into a debate which has found unanimity in the House to date. For the first time since I entered this House there has been a collegial approach to dealing with this issue, an issue which besmirches and damages the reputation of this State in a serious way. To some extent all political parties bear a responsibility for not dealing with this issue over previous generations and it is right that we would work collectively to seek to redress the serious hurt that has been caused to so many people and ensure we go forward in co-operation and bring about changes to the legislation, where necessary. Central to all of that, however, must be that the victim will remain our foremost concern in everything we do.

I appeal to the Labour Party not to divide the House tomorrow night but to put their concerns on the table. The Minister has indicated a willingness to review the contributions and the Bill that has been put forward and said directly that he will seek the appropriate legal advice. I am sure, when it is appropriate, necessary legislation can be brought forward to put the victims at the centre of our deliberations and ensure that whatever is necessary to protect and enhance what has been rightly done for them is done in a way that deals with all the issues.

On the history of what has been done since the former Taoiseach, Deputy Ahern, initially gave the apology and the various things that have happened since, I am aware from my discussion with many victims that the most important aspect for them was to put their views on the record and have somebody listen to them and believe them. For far too long those people, many of whom closeted themselves in their community, were afraid to come forward. In some cases they felt they would be stigmatised in their community and some of them felt guilty. It is wrong to think that the victims of this type of abuse felt guilty. The fact that they were able to go before the redress board, put their statements on the record and move forward has been hugely helpful to those I have had the opportunity to meet. It has been a humbling experience for me to hear the personal stories of so many people. It is helpful in terms of the work we do to hear the traumatic issues that have befell these people and their capacity to deal with life thereafter.

The most important thing to happen following the publication of the report was to ensure that justice was not just done but was seen to be done. That is important in terms of the indication from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that he would deal with the issue by way of prosecution and that he had asked the gardaí to look into the files put forward by the Ryan report to ensure that, where possible, recognising that the passage of time would make it difficult, they will bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes before the courts and seek to prosecute and punish to the greatest extent possible, regardless of the implications. I hope that will be done in as many cases as possible.

The Bill raises a number of issues, particularly the extension of the time limit. Notwithstanding the considerable advertising of the redress board, there have been some late applications. There was a further flurry of interest after the publication of the Ryan report. This proves that, regardless of what advertising one does, until it is published a report does not find its way into the public ether. Scarcely anyone in this State is unaware of the redress scheme, as a result of the media attention generated by the publication of the Ryan report.

I have an open mind about the extension of the scheme.

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