Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I welcome particularly the proposal to lift the gagging order in regard to redress board applicants. Like Deputy Quinn, I have lived long enough to remember clearly the worst excesses of censorship in Ireland, but nothing compares to this order. The idea underlying it may have been to construct a non-adversarial, no-blame compensation scheme, but that did not happen. Survivors have given testimony to a very different experience and many people have found the experience disturbingly fraught and even oppressive.

That reality requires a response. One survivor, Paddy Doyle, wrote a ground-breaking book 20 years ago, "The God Squad", about his time in an institution. I know Paddy is in the Visitors Gallery today. The tragedy is that no official action followed the publication of that book to protect children who were still at risk. At the time, Paddy's message was prophetic but ignored. He said:

... the book is about a society's abdication of responsibility to a child. The fact that I was that child is largely irrelevant. The probability is that there were, and still are, thousands of "me's".

If Paddy Doyle talks about that time in his life now, 20 years on, or if he goes to the European Court, which he may well do, to challenge the gagging order and talks publicly of his experience, he could face a substantial fine and-or a period in jail. Such an obligation of secrecy offends natural justice and the Labour Party Bill offers us an opportunity to redress the balance.

These are proposals, incorporated into the legislation we have put forward, that have flowed from the public debate following on the Ryan report publication.

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