Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The front page of today's edition of the Irish Examinerdetails the most recent comments of the tireless campaigner, Catherine Corless, on the discarded remains at the Tuam mother and baby home. Ms Corless, who has spent years doing work at her own expense that really should have been done by the State now finds her work hamstrung by the State, yet again, and this time she says money seems to be the problem. In fact, money has always been the problem when it came to these homes. Money was the whole reason they existed. The State abdicated responsibility for the homes because it would have cost money to take responsibility for all citizens. The State decided that it should outsource responsibility to religious orders or so-called charities to save the State money. That has left a legacy affecting generations. In saving money, it condemned thousands of children to a fate that does not bear thinking about. That desire to save money is what sent young boys to torturous hovels such as Letterfrack and Artane and this penny-pinching is what sent droves of young women, found wanting at some arbitrary moral altar, to the hellish mother and baby homes like Bessborough, Sean Ross Abbey, Bethany and of course Tuam.

In Tuam, the dedicated work of Catherine Corless unearthed the fact that the remains of more than 700 children had been discarded in what was basically a septic tank. They were dumped, thrown away and it was hoped they would be forgotten. But the penny-pinching by the State that led to such horrors, was a false economy. The damage inflicted on the young men and women who managed to survive those institutions has likely cost the State significant sums in various supports to try to help them cope with what they endured. For the want of funds, we are told that it is supposedly not possible to distinguish between the discarded remains in Tuam, to identify the causes of death and ultimately to identify the remains and to try to bring some semblance of closure to surviving family members. I do not accept that it is not possible to carry out the work. I recall that some years ago remains were unearthed during roadworks in Celbridge near the famine cemetery. The remains were brought to a facility in Collins Barracks and there was a tasteful reinterment of the remains. We were told the remains, which were significantly older than the ones in Tuam, were of a 50 year old man and a day old baby. We were also told what they died from and the conditions in which the 50 year old man had lived, including the food he ate. If it was possible to do that I refute the statement that we cannot deal with the very different situation that exists in Tuam.

At the time Catherine Corless made the initial revelations, I called for the scene to be declared a crime scene. If remains are unearthed where they should not be, that is what should happen. There is a need to bring in forensic anthropologists and examiners. That call stands and the work that needs to be done here cannot be neglected simply because the State, once again, is not prepared to uphold its responsibilities to the people left to the mercy of those institutions.

I deal with some women who were in a Magdalen laundry. Whatever torture they were put through, I find similar torture in terms of getting supports for them. It is not enough for the Government to come into the House and make an apology; there must be something to back up the apology in terms of meeting commitments. The reality is falling far short of what was understandably expected. The State must take full responsibility. A lot more must be done to address the situation in Tuam and to help the survivors of the Magdalen laundries and that must be done as a matter of urgency because many of those affected are at a point in their lives where they have little time to live out.

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