Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday the Taoiseach got away with telling us that the mother and baby home commission needed time to finish its work. On the surface, that sounds reasonable enough. The problem is the commission does not deal with the issue of the time it has already had. It was set up to do a job in three years, but what we have after its four years of work is four interim reports, in the first of which it looked for a time extension. In the second it told us why it had asked for a time extension in the first report. Incidentally, its publication was delayed for eight months by the Minister because it also stated Bethany Home survivors should never have been excluded from the redress scheme, which issue has still not been addressed. In the third interim report which devastated the survivor community, the commission looked for an extra year just before it should have concluded. Now, at the eleventh hour, in another report it is looking for another year. Is this a joke? Do Members honestly think it is acceptable that we should wring our hands for a little while, offer a bit of sympathy to the survivors and then move on to the next issue? I am not blaming the Taoiseach for this, but he is the one in power who could sort it out. We need to know why the commission has not completed its work and who will be held to account?

The report talks about there being a considerable workload to cross-reference documents. It also talks about delays in obtaining evidence from the authorities which ran the institutions which could not be examined until the commission had finished the examination of the documents. Why has this not been done? Is it a question of resources? If so, why did it not flag it before now? If it is a question of non-co-operation, why did it not highlight it before now? Why did it only receive the first tranche of documents over two years after it had been set up? Did it not ask for them? Was it obstructed in getting them? Why did a commission set up by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and reliant on information from that Department and the Department of Health, in its words, to produce a "comprehensive" and "accurate" report only receive information recently, a year after its business should have been concluded?

The commission talks about being dismayed that so little information had been kept by the HSE. It finds it difficult to understand how relatively recent documents are not available. It does not understand why the HSE does not have any system for archiving material. Does the Taoiseach understand it? What has he done about it? Let us remember this is the same HSE which two years before in 2012 had produced a report on the 500 baby deaths at Bessborough. It beggars belief. These are fundamental issues, but there are so many more. How come the commission can come in within budget? How come it is not costing any more money in continuing for two extra years? Will it not pay for remaining an extra two years in its Baggot Street offices? Will it not pay salaries? Did we get it wrong the first time? These are fundamental questions, but there are so many more. The only conclusion one can draw is either the commission is grossly incompetent or it is being deliberately misled. My question to the Taoiseach is which is it. Is allowing the commission to continue without scrutinising these matter in the interests of the people whom on Monday the Taoiseach so accurately and articulately stated had been betrayed by the State?

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