Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank former Senator McAleese and his team for producing this report. I completely accept its findings and believe the women and their stories. This is a sad chapter in our history. I thank Deputy Calleary for tabling the motion but we would not be discussing the matter tonight if the Taoiseach had acted properly last week when he had the opportunity to apologise unreservedly to all the women concerned and their families. He could have apologised on behalf of every man, woman and child in this country. He has a mandate as Head of Government to issue such an apology. He failed to grasp that opportunity, however. When one compares the utterances of the Minister for Justice and Equality as Opposition spokesman with what he says now, one cannot but think he is playing politics.

The report was delayed and took longer than expected to complete, even though only a small minority of the women were interviewed. As senior departmental officials were on the committee of investigation, they did not have to wait to read the report. The Government should have been man enough to apologise before the report came before us. I salute the undying dignity of the Magdalen survivors and welcome those who are in the Gallery tonight. It behoves us to introduce a proper redress scheme, pay pensions for the labour they carried out and look after their rights and housing.

Our State does not have a good record in dealing with sensitive cases like these. We all proclaim to be horrified at the mistreatment of children but not long ago nearly every Deputy except me took part in a referendum and a charade in which the Supreme Court found that the Government stole €1.1 million of the money allocated for a proper referendum campaign. Nothing has changed. We might say we are in modern Ireland but slavery and ill-treatment of young women and boys are ongoing. We cannot be washing our hands as if we are all new people with new thinking. This is going on under our noses and the Government is complicit in it. It is not acceptable that mandarins in the Department of Justice and Equality could tie the Taoiseach up in knots and prevent him from saying what he wanted to say. I believe he is a decent man.

I am not lessening the plight of these women when I say that all of them had families, some of which were not poor. They too had responsibilities. We all know of cases in our communities when this was allowed to happen with the complicity of State authorities. We cannot blame the State for everything, however. We all have to take responsibility. I knew of people and cases which were hushed up when I was a young fellow. The State put more than one quarter of them in directly but families and people must also look into their hearts. We are still doing that with immigration and what we voted for in the middle of the night last week.

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