Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I begin my contribution on this matter, I am mindful that behind me is the statue of James Connolly, as well as those of all the other leaders who fought in the 1916 Rising. Many people share my view that James Connolly was the greatest Irish person who ever lived and that the courage and values he espoused, which are imprinted into the Proclamation, will forever be a framework for the Irish people. However, it was not just about James Connolly because he was inspired by those who came before him, just as Members are today, such as Michael Davitt and James Fintan Lalor, who had a vision for a society that was fair and just. After the execution of James Connolly, people such as Liam Mellowes, about whom I saw a documentary the other night, came to the fore. These were people who really believed in equality and fairness and in everyone having a chance in life. Their values, courage and message were hijacked by conservatives, by people whose vision was narrow, mean and cruel and who besmirched the promise of the Proclamation very quickly after partition and the treaty. It is no accident that Bethany Home came into being in the year of the treaty and the foundation of the new State.

I cannot understand how the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, can wipe her hands of this issue. Anyone with basic knowledge of history knows the regimes that ran the State in the decades that followed its foundation pursued an agenda that put poor children and mothers into homes. How much more evidence does one need? One can research the newspapers and people such as Niall Meehan have demonstrated clearly and beyond any reasonable doubt that this State was culpable in putting young mothers and leaving children abandoned in this home, as well as in so many others. It is incredible that when some people enter Government, the bean counters sometimes influence their direction, that is, those who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, to use Oscar Wilde's famous phrase. I refer to the people who always look at the bottom line rather than what is right or what is the right thing to do. One should remember that these people who controlled the State with the willing consent of the Governments that had been elected during those decades, be they Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil-led or whatever, would call themselves Christians. Regardless of whether they were Protestants or Roman Catholics, they professed to follow the lesson of Christ. What would Christ think about what was done in his name in Bethany Home? What would Christ think of the 222 children who died because of meanness, cruelty and harshness and of enforcing one's moral values on people and simply perceiving them as pieces of dirt? That is what happened in the State. That was the history of the State for decades, in which the promise of men and women of values, of passion, of equality and of decency were besmirched and buried.

Now is the time for Members to set right these things and they must do it. I sat through the presentations given in Leinster House earlier this year and I do not believe there was a dry eye in the AV room when Derek Leinster and Patrick Anderson-McQuoid, two people who are decent to the core of their being, to their bone, gave their testimony. I simply cannot understand how any politician who heard the evidence and testimony or who saw the compelling evidence put together by Niall Meehan and others can deny these people and these families their justice. Members must do the right thing and must do what is right. How, with all the evidence of history and all the multiples of reports, newsreels and everything that is available, can Members deny they owe a debt of service to the citizens who the State failed? Members owe an apology to those who have been so cruelly failed in the past.

I am aware this motion will be voted down late at night. Sitting opposite me on his own on the Government benches is a Minister of State who has absolutely no responsibility for justice and equality. He is the only representative of the Government in the Chamber this evening. I have nothing against the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, personally but for God's sake. Last night, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, was in the Chamber rewriting history. I will reiterate what I have stated previously on such occasions, which is that my party does not claim to have a monopoly of decency. I believe the vast majority of parliamentarians in these Houses to be thoroughly decent people. However, what will happen here this evening, when this motion is voted down, is indecent. I ask the Government to reflect on this and to deliver justice to those families who were failed as part of that hijack of the Republic for decades by people who besmirched the Republic and besmirched the name of Jesus Christ to keep people down in oppression. While those days are over, Members must now heal the wounds and give justice and a simple apology to those who suffered at their hands.

See this speech in context