Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No Deputy could be unmoved by the discovery of nearly 800 babies buried in a mass unmarked grave. In fact, the grave was a septic tank. Added to this are recent reports of old medical records showing that 2,051 children and babies in care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for the international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and 1936. The report adds that no evidence exists that consent was ever sought. This is the stuff of war crimes and holocausts.

I must take this opportunity to pay tribute to Ms Catherine Corless, the local historian and genealogist who brought to light this truth about the 800 babies. No Deputy, no matter how long he or she has served in the Dáil, could fail to be touched or moved to tears by the many testimonies that followed the discovery. However, emotion and tears are not enough. We were elected to legislate. This debate gives all Deputies on both sides of the House an opportunity to work together in a spirit of co-operation and to support this motion. We owe Catherine a great debt of gratitude. Unlike many others, she did not turn a blind eye or pretend it never happened. We must follow her lead and take immediate action.

The failure of the State to take immediate action and of the Garda to seal off the area and treat it as a crime scene has echoes of denial. If a mass unmarked grave was found in any other part of the world, the Government, the EU and the UN would rightly treat it as a crime scene. They would demand that those who perpetrated the crime be brought to justice.

This debate is not about party politics or political point scoring. It is about acting on behalf of the women and children who were kept at the Bon Secours Sisters institution in Tuam, County Galway, and all mother and baby homes across the State. No party will be remembered for its own motion. Instead, we must be remembered for moving speedily to bring the light of truth and justice to a very dark and oppressive time in our history.

The Government needs to act swiftly and decisively on this issue. The people are outraged by this latest shameful episode. The inquiry needs to consider the so-called care regime that was in place, the infant mortality rates and the burial of children in unmarked graves at mother and baby homes. There is a clear role for the State to deal with this tragedy. The institution in Tuam, along with the many others in Ireland, was regulated by the State. This was not a case of the Catholic Church operating separately from the Governments of the time. These homes were visited by civil servants and supported by the State. Sadly, there was a close, organic relationship between them. These homes would not have existed without the proactive support of the Governments of the day.

The abusive practises that occurred at the Bon Secours Sisters mother and baby home were not unique to that institution and were replicated in similar institutions across the State. I will put on record conversations I held yesterday with two women. One, who became pregnant at only 17 years of age in 1967, was sent to a mother and baby home by her parents. She told me that, even while she was heavily pregnant, she had to go down on her hands and knees to scrub floors. One day when she was not feeling well, she sat back on her haunches only to be kicked in the stomach. Shortly after having her baby, he was taken from her and adopted. She left the mother and baby home, was driven to the airport and was put on an aeroplane and told never to come back. After years of searching for her son, they have recently met and all is going well. She told me that she wanted the State to acknowledge her abuse.

The second lady was born in a mother and baby home in around 1960. She was there for a number of months before being adopted into a good home. She was subjected to vaccine trials. She would like to know with what she was injected and why. After years of searching, she finally made contact with her mother last year. She had another family, but its members knew nothing about her. Her birth mother told her that she had spent 12 hours giving birth to her in a toilet cubicle without pain relief. When she was about to give birth, they put her on a commode, into which she then gave birth. The lady's mother passed away shortly after they met.

Women are hurting all over Ireland and abroad. They were made to feel ashamed. The religious institutions, the State and society in general should be ashamed. We need to get to the truth of the matter. I hope we can do so through consensus and cross-party support for this motion before moving swiftly to establish an inquiry.

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