Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I grew up in Milltown, a small village outside Tuam. I can sincerely say I am deeply saddened to learn of the extremely distressing treatment of babies and infants in the mother and baby home in Tuam. Unfortunately, this mother and baby home was not unique. It has become clear to me that such homes were like the moral dustbins for society at the time in question. They swept out of sight that which did not fit into the straitjacketed, warped view of how society should be, the then-Vatican's view of the world to the effect that every child should be born into a traditional family, of a married couple, and into a world with no contraceptives. This thinking regarded women as unclean and children as being born with mortal sin, and people who did not conform were locked in mental institutions. Anything that happened outside what was regarded as the sacred family structure was to be hidden and got rid of. As a society, we were complicit in this. It is too simplistic to lay the blame totally on the shoulders of the Bon Secours nuns. I must state categorically that there were no immaculate conceptions in the west of Ireland. Women and children were treated disgracefully, and the men, the fathers who impregnated the girls, seem to have walked away scot free. Were these girls who had babies victims of paedophilia, incest and feckless men? Irish society was an accomplice in this issue of the fallen woman. Families sent their daughters to these places. Families abandoned their own daughters and grandchildren. Many people knew what was happening and chose to ignore it and cover it up. This is an uncomfortable truth.

I welcome the Minister's announcement to establish a commission of investigation. It is the first step towards establishing the full truth about this dark period. We must now coolly and calmly establish, with a strong degree of sensitivity, what exactly went on in the homes. The Minister has indicated the main questions that the commission will consider, namely, how the babies died and why the death rate in the homes was over three times the national average at the time. The poor, innocent children seem never to have stood a real chance at life. There is little evidence of them living and little evidence of them dying. Their existence was hidden away, and that was the wish of society at the time, not just that of the religious hierarchy. The commission must therefore question not only the role of the Church but also that of the State and society as a whole. I am glad to hear the Irish Catholic bishops want the truth to emerge and that they have called for an independent commission of investigation with judicial powers. I hope the religious orders will co-operate. However, while misguided moral suppression of society at the time did warp people's views of what was right and wrong, the Church alone cannot be a scapegoat for this. We must bear in mind the role of society at the time and the fact that many people knew what was happening and went along with it. We must look into our own hearts to determine what sort of society we had and have today. How do we treat our children today? How do we treat our children with disabilities, autism and Down's syndrome? How do we treat our women today? Yesterday, the National Women's Council of Ireland published a report showing that women are 30% more likely to be beaten in circumstances of domestic violence when they are pregnant.

Today's business brings us back to the disturbing question of clinical trials in the homes in question. I refer to children being used as guinea pigs. Such trials were carried out in children's homes in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire. Medical professionals who oversaw the trials have insisted that the vaccines did no harm and were administered in the children's best interest. This is not acceptable today and was not acceptable in the past. It seems that the doctors effectively granted one another permission to proceed. The commission of investigation must investigate these drug trials.

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