Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the establishment of the commission of inquiry and believe its terms of reference are broad-ranging and well thought out. The fact there will be an interim report and that flexibility has been built into the terms of reference is positive.

I acknowledge the work of Catherine Corless and believe we would not be here today but for the information she unearthed. The image she exposed of the remains of children and babies who died in Tuam is haunting and sent shock waves not just across the country but internationally. When we consider that at around that same time the Luas works were going in Dublin and the city centre came to a standstill when historical remains were unearthed outside Trinity College, not to deal with these remains in an equal manner reaffirms posthumously the status these children had in life. It is vital that this issue is dealt with in the terms of reference and it is.

This commission should not just be about restorative justice or about issuing a State apology, but about learning important lessons as a people and being true to the principles on which the State was founded. The Proclamation stated:

The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, ... cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

We have let whole sections of our country down and denied the principles on which the State was founded.

The litany of issues, including in industrial schools, reinforces the necessity for us to learn lessons and to build a different republic in which we are true to the principles on which the State was founded.

The terms of reference cover the years 1922 to 1998. Some institutions existed prior to the foundation of the State but nothing was done to reform them with the State reinforcing inequality rather than reforming them. The church was trusted as though it was an arm of the State even though it was known incredible cruelty was taking place. The State had no entitlement to do that.

This is not about only the mother and baby homes; it is also about people who were fostered and used, for example, in agricultural labour and so on. The flexibility of the terms of reference needs to cater for that, as they did in the case of the Magdalen laundries. The UN report called it when we could not call it by stating people were incarcerated in the Magdalen laundries. The report pulled no punches stating they were places of forced labour with slavery-like conditions. The Minister said there would be flexibility in the terms of reference, which I have acknowledged, but the issues relating to the Magdalen laundries have not been concluded. I would like that flexibility fully exploited if the terms of reference are not amended because, for example, some religious institutions have been less than forthcoming with information. As has been pointed out previously, even today the victims are not the ones who are believed. The religious institutions still are believed and that has to end under this commission of inquiry.

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