Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The issue of institutions, whether it be mother and baby homes, industrial schools or Magdalen laundries, is harrowing and very sad when we think of the lives lost and destroyed, not to mention the physical conditions and brutality experienced by so many. Few survivors have spoken about the care they received in the institutions. It is very difficult to comprehend how adults in the so-called caring professions could have been so callous, repressive, cruel and judgmental. In many cases, they were like that with children. The families of survivors also have to share the blame because they, in many cases, were the ones who put their own members into the institutions.

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