Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We stood in this Chamber in March 2017 and I said the Government must to do all it could to ensure the commission had whatever resources it needed to complete its work in a timely fashion. Many Deputies, across this House, expressed their frustration with the delays but by and large, it was understood at the time. With this second delay, that frustration is now turning to anger. I am sure the Minister is aware of the sheer disappointment this delay has caused. The survivors of these mother and baby homes have waited a lifetime for their stories to be heard. To be told, yet again, that they have to wait another year is an injustice.

The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors described the second one-year delay as an absolute kick in the teeth for the people who will never see justice or an apology or redress. The Irish First Mothers group has described the delay as a mechanism for evading redress, while the Tuam Home Survivors Network has called the delay devastating. This is powerful. What does the Minister suggest we tell these victims, what words of comfort can we supply?

What do we tell the survivors of the Bethany Home who were wrongly excluded from the 2002 redress scheme? They have described the Government’s attitude towards them as a policy of delay and denial until they die. Many survivors' and relatives' groups are beginning to feel the same, because every time a report is on the horizon there is another pushback. I raised the question of whether it was a matter of resources. Why was it that in December some 26 people were still waiting for their testimony to be heard?

According to the report, the HSE yet again seems not to have a clue where the files are. One institution that is referenced is the Castle in Donegal. It operated until 2006, yet the HSE, which was heavily involved, has not handed over any documentation - zilch. I acknowledge and share the commission's frustration on the matter, but it is utterly shocking.

In the part of the report that covers burial arrangements, it is stated that a geophysical survey has been conducted at the site of the former Sean Ross Abbey in recent weeks and that further investigations may be carried out, depending on the findings. Will similar surveys be conducted at the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork? Not only was it run by the same religious order as the Sean Ross Abbey but the death register shows that 470 children and ten women died there between 1934 and 1953. The religious order, however, seems to have provided different figures to State inspectors for the same period.

All the facts I have outlined make it important that this mother and baby home is surveyed in the same manner as the Sean Ross Abbey. It seems that much of what is contained in the interim report has been copied and pasted from the previous one. Each delay to the final report not only means there will be a longer wait for justice and closure for the survivors but also that many people will not see the truth, justice or closure, which is a harsh reality. As I have previously stated to the Minister, justice delayed is justice denied.

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