Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I hope the terms of reference will be debated here also. It is a big project and must be done right, but there must also be a certain urgency in this regard. There is a certain irony that while the Minister was meeting the survivors last week and the Taoiseach was here stating that all allegations of sexual abuse should be thoroughly investigated, some of the victims of such practices in some of the institutions are being excluded from this scheme. I again stress that this must be survivor-centred. All former residents of all institutions must be included.

No one can be left behind. The vast majority of people were in nine mother-and-baby homes but the small minority who were outside these cannot be excluded. Again, I emphasise that areas like Westbank must be included. I imagine the Minister is aware that most of the mother-and-baby homes were certified for more children than mothers. Most of them had 50 or 100 extra children. They were in effect orphanages. The fact that some of the orphanages were not geographically linked to the mother-and-baby home and were in separate areas like Westbank or St. Philomena's Home does not mean they were not part of the same process or feeding, as part of which women went from mother-and-baby homes to county homes to orphanages to holding centres and so on. They must be included in the process.

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