Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Today is another step in a process of blowing away the locked doors to the hidden Ireland, the locked doors behind which lay decades of neglect, abuse and lives devastated, if not destroyed. Women were subjugated and shamed for so-called sins. For the longest time, society's answer was simply to lock their stories behind a door and throw away the key. Efforts were made to ensure that the keys would never be found, but no matter because we are blowing away the doors. This commission's purpose is to ensure that what was hidden and covered up will be exposed and brought into the light.

Two years ago, the Government acted decisively to address the issue of State involvement in the Magdalen laundries, rightly apologising on behalf of the State and setting up a redress fund. I said at the time that the laundries were one of the last - not the last - unresolved issues of the hidden Ireland. The State should not rest until every such last issue is brought to light.

I greatly welcome and support this motion to establish a commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and certain related matters. We already have a deeply traumatic picture of what happened in these homes because of the testimony of many brave women who had been sent to the homes, because of the testimony of those born in the homes and because of the advocacy of those campaigning on their behalf - women like my own party colleague, Deputy Anne Ferris, who tonight in this Chamber spoke so movingly of her own story and who expressed her difficulty with the draft order because she does not believe it goes far enough. We see this issue slightly differently because while some institutions may not specifically be included in the terms of reference - such as Westbank - I have sought advice and I am confident that there will still be scope for stories from those institutions to be heard. The institution I was in myself is not mentioned and I have told Deputy Ferris that I know people who were in that institution, co-graduates so to speak, of Temple Hill, and I know many people will go forward to the commission to tell their stories.

In addition to the main investigation methods of the commission, a confidential committee will allow former residents to provide accounts of their experience in private. The chair of the commission has confirmed that cases from institutions such as Westbank will not be excluded from the confidential committee and that anybody with anything of relevance to contribute can do so. While Deputy Ferris and I see this issue slightly differently, I fully respect her views and greatly admire her as a trusted colleague and a brilliant advocate for the women and children - like her mother, herself, and her sister - who went through these homes.

I think tonight of women like Sally Mulready, also born into a mother and baby home, who has stood with and fought for the women and children of the homes so passionately. I also think of women like the late Mary Raftery, who worked so hard as a journalist to bring the scandal of the industrial schools, the laundries, the homes, and similar institutions to light, and Susan Lohan and all the people in the Adoption Rights Alliance and similar organisations who have campaigned so strongly for those affected by the secret adoption system that was another feature of the hidden Ireland. I think of June Goulding, who in her memoir of her brief time working as a midwife in Bessborough, revealed in heartbreaking detail the trauma inflicted on women there. She told of how one nun running the labour ward forbade moaning or screaming when women were giving birth.

When she asked what painkillers were available for the women, she was told that "nobody gets any here, nurse, they just have to suffer". I honestly do not know what there is to say in response to that. Dostoyevsky once wrote that "compassion is the chief law of human existence", but it seems the only law in these homes at times was an inhuman one, where compassion was scorned just as much the women and children were. Compassion was also lacking outside the homes. The interdepartmental group report on mother and baby homes came about after historian Catherine Corless raised deeply troubling questions about the deaths and burials of almost 800 children in Tuam. The report set out the context for the establishment of the mother and baby homes and the stigma that surrounded so-called illegitimate births in post-independence Ireland. It gives a picture of what was known about the homes and when.

In 1939, Alice Litster, an inspector in the then Department of Local Government and Public Health, compiled a report on unmarried mothers in Ireland. She wrote in relation to mother and baby homes:

In theory, the advantage should lie on the side of the child institutionally born [because of] pre-natal care, proper diet, fresh air .... cleanliness [and] medical attention... Yet any infant born in any other circumstances [including a slum] appears to have a better chance of life. I have grave doubts of the wisdom of continuing to urge Boards of Health and Public Assistance to send patients to the special homes so long as no attempt is made to explore the causes of the abnormally high death rate.

Sally Mulready once said "comfortable Ireland for me should be quite ashamed about never asking questions". Today is an important step towards finally asking those questions and getting the answers.

It would be trite of me to suggest that this will be part of a healing process because for many of the women and children involved, it is coming too late. The children who needlessly died in infancy had no chance at life at all. There was no formal acknowledgement of the suffering of others who left the homes and died before the State embarked on this process. Nonetheless, I hope the commission will serve to belatedly put their truth on the record in a way that honours their memory. I hope the commission will represent welcome progress for the many women and children who are still alive to see this investigation announced. I hope that progress will ensure their voices are heard and their truth is told.

I thank everyone who contributed to the terms of reference. I hope they will engage further with the commission of investigation when it is established. Separately and in tandem with the establishment of the commission, work is continuing on the adoption (information and tracing) Bill to provide greater access to information for those affected by adoption who want to know their own stories. This is a complex process. To be frank, the Government is not there yet. There are differing views. We have more work to do. It is important to get it right. I am determined that we will do so.

It is important to remember that having been in a mother and baby home does not define a person. It is an aspect of that person's life. It is part of their story and their journey, but it does not and should not limit them or others' views of them. Such people should not feel limited by the manner in which their lives started. My journey involved spending my earliest years in Temple Hill and in foster care before being adopted by my family, the Burtons. I know quite a few other members of these Houses over the years who had similar experiences and for whom this was part of their story.

There are many adopted people in Ireland. They have birth mothers, fathers and families. Their adoptive parents, for the most part, have given all their love, care and attention throughout their lives to the children they adopted. Hundreds of thousands of people are affected by adoption. It is part of every extended family's story. There is an adopted child, someone who went away to have a baby and then gave that baby up or someone who adopted a child in every family. It is now time to shine a light on all of those stories.

I would like to particularly remember the former Deputy Maureen O'Carroll - the mother of all the O'Carrolls, including Brendan O'Carroll - tonight. If Deputies have a chance, I advise them to read the Official Report of the debates on the adoption law that was brought into Ireland in 1952. In the 1930s, adoption was opposed by many different forces. Even in those debates, there were conservatives who worried that the stranger child coming into the family could be after the farm or the house. The contribution made by Deputy Maureen O'Carroll, who was the first woman Labour Deputy, on this issue was full of the care and compassion that has absolutely been expressed in the contributions to this debate made by Deputies from the Labour Party and, in fairness, all the different parties in the House.

When I came into this House in 1992, adoption was not a subject that was easily spoken about. In fact, I never spoke about it publicly until 2007. Anybody who knew me knew about the story. The whole population where I lived knew about the story because people swapped stories about adoption. It was well known where I lived in Oxmantown Road. We have come a long way. I have to say I always focused on institutional redress. There was a Magdalen laundry in the school I attended. There was an orphanage there as well. I believe this commission will set about doing very important work. It is important that we get the work started, get the stories and shine the light.

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