Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deireann an dán:

Mise Éire,

Sine mé ná an Chailleach Bhéara

Mór mo ghlóir:

Mé a rug Cú Chulainn cróga

Mór mo náir:

Mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair.

Mór mo náire anocht, a Aire, ag éisteacht le daoine anseo ag labhairt os comhair na ndaoine thuas in Áiléar na gCuairteoirí. Bhí cruinniú mór daoine lasmuigh agus iad ag abair amhrán agus ag tabhairt saghas solidarity dár gcáirde.

Sinn Féin welcomes the Government's decision to establish a commission of investigation and its commitment to engage with the Opposition. We will hold the Government to this commitment. I do not say this from any sense of moral superiority. This is our responsibility. We also believe that survivors should be consulted on the terms of reference. Given the age of the survivors, many of whom are infirm, counselling and redress schemes should be put in place as quickly as possible. We believe the terms of reference must cover the effective imprisonment of pregnant women in mother and baby homes; the taking of babies from their mothers against their will; the cause of the shocking infant mortality rates at mother and baby homes; the circumstances surrounding the burial of children and babies who died at these homes; the routine illegal adoption and trafficking to the USA and elsewhere of an unknown number of children; and the subjection of children to medical trials without the consent of their mothers. We believe the commission should be established before the summer recess.

We welcome the commitment yesterday that Bethany Home is belatedly included in the commission of investigation. However, other institutions, such as the Magdalen laundries, should also be included. I commend the efforts of Catherine Corless, the Adoption Rights Alliance, other activists and especially the survivors who have worked to expose the injustice of these homes. We would not be having this debate and there would be no commission of investigation if it were not for the work of the survivors and their friends.

Women were denied their rights as citizens and they were treated as slaves. Children who did not die were left scarred for the rest of their lives. Some were treated as guinea pigs in vaccine experiments. Who gave permission for these actions to be carried out? Who authorised the use of Irish children for vaccine trials? Who was paid? How much did successive Governments know? When did this Government know of this dreadful scandal?

For many citizens there is genuine bewilderment at the scale of the abuse, the numbers who died and their treatment after death. For some commentators, the responsibility and blame for this is being laid at the door of society. I have been trying to understand this. In this version of events everybody is to blame and everybody is at fault. However, everybody is not to blame. The victims are not to blame. It is as if the virtual imprisonment of unmarried girls and women and the theft of their children were a natural outworking of Irish society in that period of our history. However, that is too simplistic a picture. It seeks benignly or inadvertently to excuse the decisions that were taken by the elites in the State and church. As Deputy Ó Caoláin told the Dáil yesterday, this can be too easily twisted into a view that since everyone was to blame, nobody was to blame. That is not good enough.

It is a fact that after Partition a conservative, mean spirited, narrow-minded political and business elite in this State, in alliance with the Catholic Church hierarchy, put in place laws, institutions and censorship restrictions which were anti-women, chauvinistic, cruel, prejudiced, intolerant and anti-working class. The thousands of women who endured unbelievable hardship were denied everything by the State. The agencies and institutions of the State are to blame.

These unmarried women broke no laws and the commission of investigation must reveal the truth of that experience and those responsible for it. The victims of this abuse should feel no shame. I make the point again, "You did no wrong." At a vigil outside Leinster House there was a celebration in solidarity of song, music and poetry. One speaker said, "The victims need validation." That is the very least we can give them, with our love, respect and thanks for their strength and courage.

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