Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Bethany Home is part of that dark time in our history along with what happened in the Magdalen laundries and in institutions such as the industrial schools. As the motion points out, the Bethany Home in Rathgar was a maternity home for women of the Protestant faith, a children's home, and a place of detention for women on remand or convicted of crimes. We know also that it was inspected and as a result of those inspections there were reports showing very serious neglect of Bethany Home children.

The 219 Bethany Home children who died and are currently buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome cemetery is particularly sad because we Irish are very respectful when it comes to death and funerals. We look after the graves of our loved ones and we mark their anniversaries. Those 219 children do not have that acknowledgement of their lives and their identities and the call for funding towards a memorial for them in Mount Jerome cemetery is one that could be easily addressed. It also reminds me of the work being done in regard to the cillíní that are in so many parts of the country, including quite a number in the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's county. There is a sadness about people who were buried in secret because they do not have their identify. They were just left in unmarked graves.

The high fatality rate among the children is attributed to the physical abuse and neglect they experienced in the home. That was borne out by the Government's chief medical adviser, Dr. Berry, as far back as 1939 when on three visits he commented on the ill-health of the children in the home. The irony, as many people have pointed out, is that this home was set up to deal with a social problem, namely, women caught up in a judicial system who were pregnant outside marriage. It was set up with good intentions. They were possibly well-meaning people, members of the Church of Ireland, but it is obvious there was very little equality or respect for the women in dealing with them as human beings and, consequently, all the maltreatment followed.

The call for an inquiry from Dr. Jackson, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, in February was positive. He supported calls for redress, stating he was open to exploring a church contribution to the cost.

Another point that is brought up concerns the records. The promised adoption Bill will ensure that all adoption records are held by a single State agency. The records of the Bethany Home are held by the Protestant Adoption Service, PAS, along with records of the other Church of Ireland social services, but other questions arise for people who were adopted in trying to locate their records. The length of time people are looking for those records is ridiculous.

It was very difficult for the survivors of the Bethany Home when they saw what was happening with the survivors of the Magdalen laundries. They could not understand why they were not included in scheme. Along with others, we have received e-mails on that in which they outline they believe they have been totally neglected. They have been excluded from both the residential institutions redress scheme and the Magdalen redress scheme, despite initial indications that the Bethany Home would be considered for inclusion in the latter scheme. I hope there may be room to make provision in that regard.

It took years to achieve a redress process for the Magdalen ladies. A good deal of progress has been made but there are still problems for the ladies in terms of the inadequacies of the report and in terms of their health care. Those issues must be addressed. An important development was the apology from the Taoiseach and this country for what had happened, a recognition of their dignity and respect for their rights. It was a long drawn-out battle. Some of the women have died in the meantime and their issues have not been addressed. We do not want the same long wait for access to provisions such as health services, as experienced by the Magdalen survivors. Many of the surviving Bethany Home children who are now adults suffer from the maltreatment they received as children in care.

I draw attention to another campaign highlighting the abuse of mixed race Irish in institutional care. A number of those people were in the Dáil recently to discuss those issues and one of the ladies stated, "The key point is that if you were mixed race back in the '50s and '60s you were 99 per cent sure of being put in an institution." She further stated:

I was not held because of my colour. When I was held the carers wore gloves because they felt contamination.

Those people have launched a campaign for recognition of mixed race survivors. We should put them all together, namely, the Bethany Home survivors, the Magdalen laundries survivors, the industrial school survivors and the group that has emerged now. The Government did not cause this issue but it is in the Minister's remit to do something about it and to ensure solutions are found to the difficulties that arose in those institutions.

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