Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

To back up what has been said already, I believe the investigation and the widening of the terms of reference have to take more of a turn of an investigation of criminal proportions. I previously read into the Dáil record and will read again what I believe illustrates in horrible terms the attitude of the church of the day to the mother and baby homes and to small children who were born out of wedlock and were considered, literally, bastards and illegitimate at the time. Thanks be to God, or not even to God but to the world around us, that we have moved on. I want to read this. It is from a journalist called Donal O'Keeffe. He wrote about John Desmond Dolan, born in 1946 and who died at the age of three months. His death cert read in the cruel language of the day that the child was "a congenital idiot". He was described on his death cert as being "a miserable, emaciated child with voracious appetite and no control over bodily functions, probably mentally defective". He was three months old.

The UN Commission on the Status of Women stated Ireland "has failed to establish an independent, thorough and effective investigation, in line with international standards, into all allegations of abuse, ill-treatment or neglect of women and children in the Magdalene Laundries". The committee urged the State "to conduct prompt, independent and thorough investigations, in line with international human rights standards, into all allegations of abuse in Magdalene laundries, children’s institutions, Mother and Baby homes, and symphysiotomy in order to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of those involved in violations of women’s rights". We many not find many people still alive to prosecute, but it is the case that this should be conducted as a criminal trial. The commission also stated "all victims/survivors of abuse should obtain an effective remedy including appropriate compensation, official apologies, restitution, satisfaction and rehabilitative services".

I know some of the women in the Visitors Gallery and they are very welcome. I am delighted to see them here. One of them recently told me that she is thinking of issuing the Minister an invoice for what she is owed for what she has suffered and for the losses she has suffered during her life. That invoice should be handed directly to the Catholic Church, which is a very wealthy organisation and has failed to pay its share of retribution for all of its crimes inflicted on children, boys, women and babies in this country.

Some 35,000 women and girls went through the mother and baby homes between 1904 and 1996. At least 6,000 babies died. The infant mortality rate at Tuam was five times that among the rest of the population. The infant mortality rate in all of the mother and baby homes was higher in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s than it was in the slums of our cities and towns.

That says it all. It was best described by Fintan O'Toole when he called it the "the moral-industrial complex – the vast archipelago of industrial schools, Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and mental hospitals". As the Minister is aware, the history of this is not just academic or historical because the church has fought tooth and nail and crozier to block any attempt by us to take control of the provision of health and education and continues to do so to this day. I caution this House that we probably need to set aside a discussion of the developments in St. Vincent's University Hospital because I do not think all is as healthy and clean as it appears.

My main point is to emphasise that although things are changing for the better in this country, it is time we began in a serious way the process of the separation of church and State. If there is to be a memorial to the suffering of the thousands, at this stage probably hundreds of thousands, of survivors and victims of the legacy of the church and its role in this country, it should be the beginning of the separation of church and State and putting the church into the dustbin of history where it belongs but to do so by giving back dignity and financial and other supports, including rehabilitative and moral supports, to those people. I am delighted that the Minister will meet them and take their testimonies. This should happen in a timely fashion and should not be dragged out for many years because time moves on and people pass away. It is very important that all of them have their day and have some sense of justice in this country.

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