Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

An extract from The Tuam Heraldin November 1948 following a visit by two politicians to the Bon Secours mother and baby home concluded that they paid a high tribute to the work of the sisters in charge and the entire management and seemed pleased with the good work in the institution. At the time the visit took place, a child was dying on average every two weeks in this institution. These deaths were repeated in mother and baby homes throughout the country. There is a tendency to blame the religious for the regime in operation in these homes and there is no doubt that it was far from Christian how these children and their mothers were treated but this was done in the full knowledge of the State and many citizens. We were a shameful, craven society and these atrocities continued in mother and baby homes, Magdalen laundries and industrial schools right up to the 1990s.

I welcome the Government's decision to commence a commission of investigation into the events in mother and baby homes and I also welcome the decision to include the Bethany Home. It is the least we can do to ensure the truth is told about the events that took place in the homes. The inquiry has to allow the survivors to tell their story and have it recorded. It is only through this process that people can begin to heal and come to terms with what was done to them in our name. As a society, we must learn from the investigation. We have to make sure such crimes cannot be repeated.

However, unfortunately, there is an ongoing situation, which has been mentioned by previous speakers. A Minister will have to stand in the House in a few years and apologise for the wrongs that have been done in our name to many children and adults in direct provision during the early part of the 21st century and for the treatment of asylum seekers in hostels throughout the State. The system as it is operated is effectively a series of open prisons where people who have come to the country for protection end up being segregated and abandoned in hostels, suffering from isolation and deteriorating mental health. There are children in this society who were born into direct provision and they are growing up in these prisons. What harm are we doing to them? People have been living in hostels for more than ten years waiting for the State to deal with their cases. This wrong has to stop. I call on the Minister to make it his business to make sure this system is ended now in order that we do not have to apologise to these children in the future.

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