Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and to do my small part in representing the wishes of a group of people who have been forgotten for far too long. First, l pay tribute to Niall Meehan and all the others involved in Bethany Home survivors group who have kept on the pressure over the years. I pay tribute to my colleague, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, and her officials who have helped to highlight this case of gross injustice.

l am disappointed by the Government amendment, on which we will be forced to vote tomorrow. The amendment seeks to deny any State responsibility for the abuse perpetrated in Bethany Home despite clear evidence that the Government of the day was aware of and did little or nothing to stop it. It cannot be stated loud enough that Bethany Home was not simply a mother and baby home. Any effort by Government to portray it as such is deeply dishonest.

The Registration of Maternity Homes Act 1934 referred to in the Government amendment was enacted to protect children. Speaking in the Houses in 1934, Dr. Ward, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health said:

[I]t is a well-known fact that in some of our large cities there are maternity homes of a very poor class which are availed of largely by unmarried mothers. We are not at all satisfied that those homes are properly managed. As a matter of fact, we have information to the contrary in the report published in 1927 on the relief of the sick and destitute poor. The Commission drew attention to different evils which they traced to the poor-class maternity homes, or to the not too scrupulous management of those homes, particularly the connivance of the management at the secret disposal of children to unsuitable foster parents, and the consequent high death rate amongst the children.

This quotation blows the Government's claims out of the water. The reference to "evils", "very poor-class" unsatisfactory management who were "not too scrupulous" and engaged in "connivance" against the interests of children in their care indicates, even if only vaguely, that the State was aware of the problems. State inspections of Bethany children fostered out document the horrendous neglect from which the 1934 Act was supposed to protect children. Women were referred to Bethany Home by the courts. According to the Irish Independent of 1931, one woman who pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to concealment of birth was bound to the peace for two years, with an undertaking that she should remain in a home. She was sent to Bethany Home.

In January 1940 The Irish Timesand Irish Independentpublished reports from the High Court to the effect that the civic guards, the Garda, were in the habit of sending any homeless Protestant girl to Bethany Home. It is untrue for any Minister of State to come to the House and paint a picture of private institutions where women simply went to have their babies. We know it and the Minister of State knows it as well. I call on the Minister of State to admit the facts clearly shown in the reports and records I have quoted from. This is not the sin of this Government. No Minister before the House is responsible for the State's failure to protect these women and children. However, the Government does have the opportunity to help them to begin a healing process long denied. If the Government denies these people that salve of recognition then it begins to bear some responsibility since it would be capitulating with the State in protecting itself from the truth of its crimes and failures. Such a move would be especially wrong if it were motivated by a desire to avoid having to pay any redress.

Justice delayed is justice denied. For far too long the Government has feared that the gates will open. It is high time that we, as a society, and the Government admitted that a terrible injustice was done and that the State had a direct involvement in the tragedies that befell the women and children. They were victims of an archaic system long since universally condemned for destroying the lives of so many of our citizens. The Minister of State knows that Bethany Home victims should have been included in the redress scheme. I rest my case.

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