Brian Walsh (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the discussion. I cast my mind back to last week, when this was a different place. The Chamber was full and, more importantly, the Visitors' Gallery was filled with victims and survivors. The Taoiseach handled the situation well. There was some initial criticism of his response to the report but he was proven to be correct in the fullness of time. He handled the matter appropriately and took his time to reflect on the content of the 1,000-page report and meet with the survivors. He made a heartfelt, sincere and powerful speech and apology to the victims and survivors of the laundries. Most people in the Chamber on the night acknowledged that the speech played an important role in the healing process. The most important people in the debate were the survivors themselves who were in attendance and who stood and applauded the Taoiseach's speech with tears in their eyes. It was an occasion on which to be proud to be a Member of the House and it was poignant and emotional. Many of those senior Deputies who have been Members of the House for longer than I have or would hope to be said they had never experienced anything like the emotion that was palpable in the Dáil last Tuesday night.

I commend the brave women who shared their experiences with Dr. Martin McAleese and his interdepartmental committee. The courage they showed in recounting the haunting and hurtful memories that informed the McAleese report has, as the Taoiseach said, held up a torch to our past and illuminated some of the darkest recesses of our nation's recent history. Women were incarcerated in the Magdalen laundries for a variety of reasons or, in some cases, for no reason at all. Many were admitted for what has been described as the crime of being an unmarried mother. Others were admitted because they had physical or mental disabilities or, more simply, because they were deemed to be attractive or assertive. They were detained for undetermined periods in a culture of shame and fear, suffering daily humiliation and a regime of punitive physical labour. Shamefully, they were described as fallen women, but it was in fact society that had fallen.

Women were branded with an inescapable stigma and excommunicated from society because of what was understood to be a sense of morality but was in fact inherently immoral. No section of society is untainted by this stark period. The church, State, courts and Garda Síochána were all complicit in referring women to these institutions. Psychiatric hospitals, industrial schools and mother-and-baby homes were also complicit. As Deputy Eamonn Maloney said, parents sent their daughters to Magdalen laundries in an effort to avoid scandal. That attempt to avoid scandal constituted a greater scandal. The stigma attached to unmarried mothers during much of the period meant that many had their babies forcibly removed and put up for adoption without legitimate consent. Children were, in effect, exported as part of a system under which the State colluded with the church. Approximately 2,100 children were sent overseas for adoption in this way between 1949 and 1973.

The insight into this Ireland which the McAleese report provides is deeply saddening. It reflects a failure at every level of society, from those arms of the State which condemned vulnerable women to this fate to the ordinary people who unquestioningly accepted the propriety, rectitude and role of these damaging institutions. The brave survivors of the Magdalen laundries who have lived their lives in the shadow of the past should be made to know that we share their anger and pain. As citizens of the State and members of the church, these injustices and atrocities were perpetrated in our names. It is important that the publication of the report not only shines a light on our past but illuminates our path to the future. It is important that we reflect on the findings to foster a more inclusive society, accept and address social issues and never again remain silent and blinkered about injustices affecting our people. I am pleased, therefore, that the erection of a national memorial has been proposed in the context of making restitution for the survivors of the laundries. I also welcome the appointment of Mr. Justice Quirke to carry out a review and identify how best to support the victims and survivors and to meet their psychological and medical needs.

As Deputy Seán Crowe has said, it is very important that the support we now provide, be it financial or otherwise, is given openly and transparently. It is important that the resources of the State that will be committed to this are afforded as far as possible to victims and not tied up in legal wrangles. It is important to ensure the legal fraternity does not get involved in taking a huge slice of whatever resources the State makes available to victims. It is also important that the religious orders make some contribution to the compensation package. This is a debate on which Members on all sides are as one. It is important that the needs and concerns of the survivors and victims are put first and that we act in a speedy manner to address them.

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