Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Our history shows that unfortunately we have always engaged in infanticide or left unwanted babies and children to die of neglect. Ordnance Survey maps of the island show lisín cemeteries for babies abandoned or killed. This is not just an Irish phenomenon. If one reads Oliver Twistby Charles Dickens one sees similar organisations set up to deal with that reality and the same occurred. There was a 90% mortality rate for the babies and children in those foundling institutions in the centre of London, Covent Garden and elsewhere. Sadly and savagely, that experience may have continued longer into the 20th century in Ireland than in other countries. I would argue that is because of the shadow of the Famine and the fear of having a child who may not have had a father to provide for it. The poverty in this State in the 20th century created a particular culture such that families, and fathers – and men are at the centre of this – told a girl who got pregnant that she must take the boat, have a shotgun wedding or have the baby and put it into a home. As a people we are all part of that culture, it goes back to our grandparents and great grandparents. It was the exact same in Bethany, a Protestant home, as in Bessborough, a Catholic home. Families in Irish society of every church and none told a young woman they could not afford for her to have a child because they could not stand over the shame of the illegitimacy and the poverty. That was totally wrong.

James Deeny, the Chief Medical Officer in 1944, saw what was happening in Bessborough and brought it to a halt. He said it was a disgrace and had to stop. The assistant secretary in the Department of Health, Joseph Robins, catalogued that history in real detail. The centre of our State recorded what had happened. We have to admit, and it is difficult to admit, that we were so neglectful, so willing to ignore the reality of those thousands of deaths of babies who were neglected although they were put into care. We need to examine every one of those homes to recognise the reality and learn the lessons from the lack of care in our society.

This raises wider questions about today. Are we blind to the reality of a woman being pregnant in her early 20s? She cannot afford a home. Are we creating an economy or society that allows a 21 or 22 year old woman easily raise a child? Among lone parents 58% are at risk of poverty. Let us look at ourselves, our society and economy and ask whether we really value mothers and stand up for babies and children. We are better in that we could not now turn a blind eye to deaths of babies on that scale. We live in a more transparent, honest and less poor society. We need to strive to record that and learn the lessons from it. This week has been remarkably difficult and harrowing. Grace's story makes us ask whether we have really learnt the lessons, whether we are really providing due care. We must look after those who are still alive and bear the scars of that system, but we must also try to create a different system which values motherhood and babies and creates the conditions in which if one does have a child, whatever the circumstances, it is cared for, celebrated and supported and which, instead of being driven solely by economic interests, might centre on the needs of the child.

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