Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ireland’s past shame is its present shame. I am not sure if the Taoiseach is completely and utterly out of his depth or that he just sticks to prepared scripts. I do not know what the issue is. I have not asked the Taoiseach anything about a coroner or the Garda. I specifically asked him about publishing an interim report that his Minister has had since September last year. She stated in a reply to a parliamentary question that she will publish it. I am asking the Taoiseach to confirm why it has not been published eight months later. What is in it that is so frightening? What is in it that prevents it from being published?

On the Taoiseach's commission and our shameful past, who made it shameful to have what was natural, namely, a pregnancy and a baby? Who instituted that those babies were taken, not directly by the nuns in the middle of the night but as the result of a visit from a priest or somebody else doing their job? Please do not insult the women of Ireland on International Women's Day. Will the Taoiseach just answer the question as to when the interim report will be published? Will he confirm that the site in Tuam will be sealed appropriately? Will he stop talking about a memorial at this point, which is utterly premature? Will he instead deal with the facts and the issues which the representative organisations have asked him to do? At some stage, the Government has to learn.

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