Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a cliché to say that a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable but it is true. God knows but we have many reasons to come up wanting in that judgment, not just in the past but today, when sick people have to fight, beg and shout to get help. There is a lot of talk about the times that were in it then, when women who were pregnant outside the strict rules of Irish society were treated as outcasts, often rejected by their families and hidden away like some dirty secret. It is this aspect of this sorry episode of our history that I wish to address - the secrets that are kept in archives, files and records all over the State. There is a need for a full inquiry into what happened. We might hope in our hearts that there are no more horrors to be revealed and that a proper inquiry will stop the drip feed of suffering and pain that has poured out of our history of the treatment of women and children in Ireland.

Let us start any inquiry with the records that exist. They must be released by all and every organisation, State body or religious order that holds them. If they are not already under the auspices of the National Archives of Ireland and if there is legislation, regulation, by-law or whatever is needed, then let us do it without delay. Catriona Crowe, head of special projects at the National Archives of Ireland, is on record as saying that she knows that the files of the biggest mother and baby home in the country, St. Patrick's on the Navan Road in Dublin, are in the possession of the HSE. That could mean that old health board files all over the State contain the records of these mother and baby homes. Two religious orders ran these homes, as far as I am aware - the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They must have records, not only of the admissions, births and deaths that happened under their supervision. Did they hand their records over to the health boards, or have they still got them in their possession? If they have them, what do they record about the women and babies who were in their institutions? Do they need work to get them into chronological order and what details do they contain? There must also be record of the administrative relationship between these orders of nuns and the State. There must be financial accounts. Did the religious orders get paid by the State for running these places? Are there records of payments from the pharmaceutical companies who carried out medical trials on children in these homes? Have the companies got the results of their medical trials recorded? What of the dioceses in which these homes existed? Are there records of the orders' relationships with their religious mentors and bishops?

The General Register Office, GRO, should hold all the records of births and deaths. This is where Catherine Corless, to whom this State owes a debt for her work to date, found the death certificates of the Tuam babies. She paid for them out of her pocket and should be congratulated for her dedication and commitment to the work she has revealed to us. The GRO should be asked to hand over what it has, without waiting for an inquiry to ask for it and every Catholic and Protestant diocese in Ireland should be asked to do the same. If what we already know is anything to go by, we will be horrified all over again by what these records reveal but I ask for the files to be opened and to let it all come out now, once and for all, because that is the only way to deal with the tragedy that it is.

That said, I am aware of the living women who were victims of such a system and who were wrongly terrified into silence for years. Women out there are still not able to tell their loved ones about lost babies, dead babies or babies sold off to adoption boards. They are victims of the society that made them feel that a normal, healthy sex life was a crime and one so serious that they deserved any pain and suffering that came after. The pain they felt most was the taking of their babies but, for some of them, that pain continues because the lie was told so long ago and the secret kept for so long that to reveal them now would damage precious relationships made after the birth and loss of their first babies. These women should be reassured at the setting up of any inquiry that they will not be exposed against their will and that discretion and their right to confidentiality will be maintained. Hopefully, for some of them, that secret can at last be revealed and they will get the help they need to talk about their experiences in a way that will bring healing and not further suffering to their lives.

This motion is tabled in the knowledge that this country needs to deal with the past. We cannot move forward unless we do. I urge all Members to support the motion. I hope that what has been exposed over the past weeks and years will purify a rotten system that existed between the leadership of the church and the State in this country. It destroyed the lives of many.

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