Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The official apologies made to the victims of the Magdalen laundries and industrial schools made a huge difference to the people concerned and this issue will not go away. It meant a huge amount to the people concerned in Australia to have the state officially acknowledged the issue. In 2010 Gordon Brown apologised for Britain's role in some of these activities in disrupting the identity of children and facilitating their abuse and exploitation. We are dealing in many instances with a generation of stolen children who have a right to know who they are and a State apology. Many of them were adopted, while others died - one quarter of all babies born outside marriage in the 1930s died. In some mother and baby homes the mortality rate of children was 50%. Subsequently the State has actively tried to deny and frustrate people's attempts to discover their identities. Even now, with centralised records, people still cannot access them. Until that issue is resolved, they will keep pressing because the adoptees of yesteryear are becoming more organised and demanding their entitlements and rights to an apology and vindication.

See this speech in context