Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When we were children - six of us growing up in rural Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s - our mother would threaten us that she would send us to Daingean if we did not behave. We did not know what happened in Daingean, which was about ten miles from my house in the midlands, but we had heard that behind its high stone walls, terrible things happened to bold children. We did not know that Daingean was just for boys or that it had closed in 1973. We knew nothing, but the threat alone was enough. My mother did not even know what happened in Daingean. She was only 25 when it closed, a married mother of two by then and marriage barred since 1970. When her youngest was nine she returned to full paid employment, having spent 26 years rearing children and giving us every opportunity and privilege she never had. As we got older, a spotlight began to shine on the darkest areas of Ireland, peering behind those high stone walls.

This particular Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, to investigate these matters of significant public concern, cannot report soon enough. I welcomed the third interim report published by the Minister, Deputy Zappone, before Christmas. I am disappointed that the final report is now not due until February 2019 but I respect that the commission's request for an extension of a year before making its report was approved by the Government. It is, however, disappointing and frustrating for the former residents of these homes that yet more time must elapse before that truth emerges and one cannot but feel that from their perspective, justice delayed is justice denied. Time is running out for those women and children.

Many of these children are now well into their 60s, 70s and 80s and it is important to stress today that any further delays, beyond the one approved in December by the Minister, will be an insult to the commission process and to the former residents of those homes. It was deeply upsetting to read an article by Ellen Coyne in The Times, Ireland Edition, which reported well over a month ago that 17 elderly Magdalen laundry survivors with intellectual disabilities are still awaiting compensation from the State and others among their group have died while waiting for redress to be paid to them. I urge the Minister, Deputy Zappone, to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to pursue a speedy resolution for the women and to enact the assisted capacity legislation as soon as possible.

Of the 14 institutions defined as mother and baby homes listed on the official commission website as "under investigation", five of them are based in my constituency of Dublin Bay South. It is estimated that more than 35,000 women and girls went through the nine major mother and baby homes, and that the Governments of the time paid for those women to be "cared for" while they were purged of the sin of childbirth.

It is important that Members of this House, both past and present, pause on occasion and check their privilege. I am not talking about the privilege and honour that comes from serving as a Deputy; I am talking about the privilege that so many people take for granted and remain utterly blind to, namely, the privilege of being born healthy and able-bodied to parents who either raised them themselves or gave them the opportunity to be raised by others. I am talking about the privilege of being wanted, loved and fed and reared in a safe and secure home. I am also talking about the privilege of being valued in a society that was practically designed for them to participate in as an equal, with the economic safety net of family and friends and with every opportunity available to succeed and grow. I remind all Members to check their privilege from time to time. Some of us may not notice the huge head start afforded to us by virtue of where, when, and to whom we were born.

My mother is 70 now and remains steadfastly unsurprised by the mounting revelations of the past decades. She often talks about girls in rural Ireland who never went to the homes but who had their babies at home. If they did not survive, they buried them quietly at the end of their gardens under an apple tree. The babies that survived home births to young girls were treated totally differently from other children. They were seen as lesser and made to know that too. There was little sign even then of a willingness to "love both", as the girls were judged too. That sexual apartheid was supported by laws and encouraged in an attempt to discipline communities. My mother is not an outlier for her generation. She has many friends her age with similar stories. They tell stories of only daughters, impregnated against their will in order to guarantee inheritance of their father's farm, or teenage girls cycling rattling bikes down dark, narrow roads, who were set upon by men. Those men never paid any price for their crimes while the girls paid dearly.

People might see this as washing our dirty linen in public, but I ask them to think of those 35,000 women who washed our dirty linen in private. People might resent hearing these stories, and they might deny that these things happened but these stories are true and they did happen. I very much welcome the statement from the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, and that of the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, in whose constituency Bessborough is based, who I hope will work with the Minister and the UN to consider the State's response to the legacy of the former mother and baby homes and to examine the progress being made.

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