Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Clare Daly for bringing about a debate on this issue. I welcome the survivors who are here to listen to the debate. This motion is being supported by the Coalition of the Mother and Baby Homes Survivors. We did not put forward this motion because it had dropped out of a clear blue sky. It is clear that the records held by Tusla in respect of Bessborough mother and baby home contain information concerning seriously questionable adoption practices. As the Minister of State is aware, the HSE said as much as long ago as 2009. As the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the order that owned Bessborough, prepared to cease operating the institution as an adoption agency throughout 2009 and 2010 and transfer more than 15,000 files to the HSE, the latter was determined to secure indemnity against legal action in respect of any records it received. An updated memo of a meeting the HSE held with the management group from the religious order noted its desire to manage liability for past Bessborough responsibility and ongoing legal activities as an adoption agency, when and if that might arise. In a letter, dated 8 February 2010, to the solicitors representing the religious order, the childcare manager for the HSE south region stated that the executive needed that assurance because it had reason to believe that the past practices of the agency had, as the manage stated, "not always been exemplary". The following year, a HSE social worker revealed that files from Bessborough contained information on the quasi-illegal deportation to and adoption of children in the United States, Britain and Australia. In a business plan prepared in 2011 by a principal social worker in the HSE south Lee region during preparations for the HSE's takeover of the records, it was pointed out that the natural mothers and adopted children had been “badly treated, rebuffed, misled, and in many cases dishonestly misdirected” when seeking information.

As Deputy Clare Daly mentioned earlier, Ms Jackie Foley is one of those women badly treated by the nuns and the State right up to the present day. She is still being treated very badly. Her treatment by various State agencies as an adult has been no better. Let us take Tusla as an example. It now holds the records which reveal what happened to Ms Foley as a teenager. Staff handling Ms Foley's case were instructed in an email last year to not refer to situations like hers as “illegal” but instead as “possible illegal registrations”. Reference was also made to having to “hold our powder” because “that stuff is FOI’able ... and it could be used against us if someone takes a case”. Staff were also told that the Adoption Authority of Ireland was the only body that could make a determination as to the legality of an adoption.

Ms Foley's son is now 44.

If he had access to his original birth certificate, he would spend years searching for his mother under the wrong name. He would be looking for Micheline Power, a woman who does not exist. It is horrendous to be in that situation. Another woman, Ann Crowe, aged 58, had her first baby, Roger Declan, at Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork in February 1979. Her experience at the home run by the Sacred Heart Sisters was horrendous. She said "We were dirt to the nuns". Ms Crowe says she delivered her baby on 23 February and had him for 48 hours. She says he was a fine, healthy baby and that after she had fed him, one of the nuns told her to go to the laundry on a message. Ms Crowe says she was gone for a few hours and that when she came back, the child was gone. Ms Crowe says she was screaming and roaring and in a panic and that a nun slapped her right across the face. Ms Crowe calmed down and said "Where is he then? Let me see him". The nun said he was already buried "out there somewhere in the fields". Ms Crowe says she has never been shown a grave and has a birth but not a death certificate. She says:

He was stolen from me. He was a healthy baby. He couldn't have died.

As has been pointed out, this is from just one adoption agency whereas it is possible over 182 adoption agencies could also have dealt with these cases. I appeal to the Minister to take on board what my colleague, Deputy Connolly, has said about the second interim report. The recommendation at paragraph 4.29 of the interim report says the Minister does not have to wait for the completion of the full report to provide redress. We should be implementing that as needed, in particular for the elderly who are waiting for this report, and also include the falsification of birth certificates. It is absolutely crucial that we do this. We cannot ignore these women. They need respect, acknowledgement and to be listened to. It is not us who are asking for this, it is them.

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