Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the statement by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, that the Government will establish a statutory commission of inquiry into the operation of mother and baby homes. Such an inquiry will have to deal clearly with how women were treated and mistreated in such homes, the high infant mortality rates in such homes, the burial practices, the carrying out of vaccine trials, all of the circumstances surrounding adoption practices, for example, illegal and forced adoptions, and much more. Above all, I suggest such an inquiry will have to deal with the societal backdrop and society's attitude at the time to women who became pregnant outside marriage. Shame, guilt, stigmatisation, hardship and a culture of concealment were all part of society's response to such women. They endured all of this because they were deemed to have broken society's rules. Much of this is incomprehensible to present day generations, but it was nonetheless the reality. Children born in such homes were treated as lesser being with fewer rights. Many were barbarically taken from their mothers without real respect for their mothers or their own inalienable rights as children. The importance of this issue for present day society and future generations concerns the need to learn lessons and, I hope, influence society for the better in how it deals with the many social issues that come its way.

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