Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news today that a commission of investigation is to be established into the monstrous discovery in Tuam. I welcome that this has been done with a pace not seen in previous cases where the State might have felt the need to close ranks and protect itself. Many lessons have been learned over recent years, especially during this Government's term, that action has to be taken and that it is only possible for the can to be kicked down the road for so long. I commend the public, who in their outcry at yet another shameful story of Ireland's abusive past, have forced this decision. Credit must also go to local campaigners such as Catherine Corless, who refused to allow this to be forgotten.

This is not a new story. We are all painfully aware of the terrible things done to people in this country by religious institutions under the watch of the State. Unfortunately, I believe we will continue to be shocked, angered and disappointed by more stories of this kind as Ireland continues to open up and deal with its past, but we must do this because it is not just the past of one town or one institution or order. This is the history of a people who for generations were controlled by the Catholic Church and an all-pervasive conservative and patriarchal structure that did as it pleased based on a perverted notion of morality which was the furthest thing possible from Christianity. Our entire society was complicit to some degree and today in our discoveries we are filled with shame to know that this was allowed to happen to young women and children who were treated as if they were not even human. Every family, town and parish has stories of how this repression of our humanity broke us up and damaged us.

The conclusion we must make is that we must unearth the injustices of our past and bring them into light so we can understand how such terrible things can be done and ensure they will never happen again. In doing that, we must then realise the folly of remnants of those brutal times in our society and move forward to a more free culture where people are not raised to feel shame or guilt for their humanity. I speak of misogyny, homophobia, racism and sectarianism, and all bigotries which devalue fellow humans and justify mistreatment.

Seven hundred and ninety-six children died in the Bon Secours institution. Some of them were dumped, not buried, in a septic tank. Two hundred and nineteen children died in the Bethany Home. Mothers were ripped from their families and communities, and then from their children. These deaths happened under the watch of the political establishment, which in some cases benefited directly from the slave labour of the Magdalens. Some in this House were here when the church still operated its prisons 18 years ago. Children are still hurt today by the actions of a State which devalues their lives and prioritises debt servicing and European targets. That is not to say that this issue is the same but when children live in poverty and go without basic needs such as a warm coat or good nourishment, when they are living in hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation or sleeping in crowded beds and not living as children should live, we cannot say we have fully learned the lessons of this dark period. Its unearthing is a challenge to us not just to deliver for the survivors, but for our children and the future generations who we hope will look back on these crimes as something alien to their understanding of how we treat each other.

Many years ago there was an old asylum in Finglas where now exists a housing estate, and a main carriageway was put through it. When it was being demolished and the housing built, unmarked graves and bones were discovered. How many more of these things happened? How many other places have we lost in terms of the history of what happened in them?

Mental health institutions were a law unto themselves and operated in an horrific way. Many people were buried on the grounds of some of those institutions. That is an issue we must investigate as well.

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