Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A number of weeks ago during April, we gathered in Mount Jerome Cemetery to unveil a memorial stone to the 219 children who had died in the Bethany Home in Rathgar. The level of distress experienced by survivors and their families at that gathering was something to behold. At that stage, the Government and the State had adopted the position that there would be no dealing with mother and baby homes and what had occurred in them. I welcome very much the fact that the position has changed. I recognise that it has changed largely because of the widespread outcry in respect of the revelations regarding the Tuam mother and baby home and the mass burial site there. That reaction of horror is entirely understandable. The reaction of shock and even disbelief is entirely understandable. However, it is important to state that this information is not entirely new. It may be new to vast sections of the general public but it is not new information to the State or its agencies.

Religious institutions and organisations and the churches undoubtedly have a case to answer in respect of the mother and baby homes and other relevant institutions. Undoubtedly, the social norms of Ireland in past decades must be scrutinised and collectively we have questions to answer. However, when one pares it all back, this is really about the State's responsibility to each and every citizen, to those women who found themselves in those institutions and to those children who were born and in some cases died in them. Many of the children were fostered out or adopted from them. We rely in the final instance on the State to be a bulwark against warped social values or perverse practices within any privately run institution. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, must bear in mind that the State had an obligation to regulate and inspect these very institutions in which we now know such cruel abuse occurred.

Speaking earlier today, the Taoiseach said the inquiry is all about the kind of Ireland that was. He has a point. However, it is equally important to state that the manner of the investigation will tell us everything about the kind of Ireland we live in now and the value we place on women and children. I welcome the fact that the commission of investigation will have full statutory powers to compel witnesses and papers. I presume those powers will extend to access to potential burial sites, some of which are in private hands. I understand the full scope of the inquiry must be thought out and itemised precisely. The central issues around the care regime or lack thereof, the infant and child mortality rates, the vaccination trials and the practices around adoption are clear issues to be addressed. There are some more.

I understand that the scope of the inquiry equally needs to be clarified. Just as the mother and baby homes need to be examined, so too do other institutions that were in part or in whole State funded and State regulated. They should be included in the mix. I refer for instance to the Westbank home in Greystones which only closed in 1998. That had a very clear relationship with Bethany Home in Rathgar. I refer to the Protestant Magdalen homes which have never been subjected to any public scrutiny or examination and have been excluded from any form of inquiry or redress. I refer again to the Magdalen laundries because there was huge interplay between the Magdalen laundries and the mother and baby homes. One cannot carry out anything that pretends to be a comprehensive and objective examination of those institutions without returning to the issues in the Magdalen laundries. The McAleese process was imperfect to say the least. We must now compensate for that fact in the course of this commission of investigation.

We have a chance now to get it right and there is an expectation on the part of survivors, their families and the broader society that we will do so. I urge the Minister to work with the Opposition benches here and, more importantly, to have a listening ear to all of those campaigning groups across the country who for many years have been telling their stories. They learned today that perhaps they will be fully heard and vindicated. I hope that nobody here in the Dáil will disappoint them.

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