Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I praise Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill for the work he has done and welcome the outcome of it. In the few minutes we have available to discuss this matter we should try to draw some lessons from the case. Even though I have only been a Deputy for a short time, it feels familiar to be talking about a scandal that involves State abuse of vulnerable citizens. There is a familiarity about the Taoiseach's apology, the heartfelt utterances by Ministers who adopt a mea culpaattitude, the commitment that we will never allow this to happen again, that lessons need to be learned and the hope it is in the past. Time and again we seem to have a strong sense of déja vu.

The problem for me is that lessons have not been learned and that the State has not changed. The Minister and the Taoiseach will have the same instincts the next time they are confronted by vulnerable citizens failed by the State as they do today. It is not an oversight, a mistake, or the workings of some over-zealous civil servant or functionary; it is embedded in the heart of the State and its workings. If one looks at our record on hepatitis C and Brigid McCole, symphysiosotomy, Cervicalcheck, the Magdalen laundries, church-run schools and institutions, the Shane Farrell case and the long list of other issues, the speeches by chastened Ministers and leaders are similar but, frankly, they ring hollow. What did the State do in this case? What is it hoping to achieve in contesting the Ruth Morrissey case? What is the thinking behind denying justice to the Magdalen women or seeking to limit the rights of survivors of abuse? It is not protecting its citizens but, rather, protecting its failures and institution from its vulnerable citizens.

Like Brigid McCole, Louise O'Keeffe was bullied and threatened with ruin if she pursued a clear injustice. The instinct of the State is to circle the wagons and hunker down, in the hope the threat might pass it by. We know that it is not just about limiting its liability because we have seen the other side of the State in recent cases involving big business and in which the coffers have, on occasion, overflowed with abandon. There seems to be little limit to its largesse in such cases. The actions of the State in this case are about protecting itself. The links between many of the cases are the failure of the State to provide basic services citizens should receive by right, the contracting out of core responsibilities to religious or other bodies or companies and the fact that as a result it is women or vulnerable people who bear the brunt of failure and the subsequent attempts by the State to hide or evade its responsibility.

Bertolt Brecht said: "Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes". We do need our heroes and we seem to be blessed with them, whether it is Vicky Phelan, Brigid McCole or Louise O'Keeffe; but we should not need them. We should be a happy nation that does not need them and our heroes should not have to risk so much and have their personal stories laid out so publicly to correct the failings of the State and the attempt by the State to protect itself. One might ask what our State institutions are protecting. What did the Government and its officials think it was protecting in 2012 when it chose to interpret the ECHR judgment in such a clever and maliciously narrow way? Who did the then Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, and Fine Gael think they were protecting when they threatened Brigid McCole with penury over the hepatitis C scandal? Who did the State Claims Agency think it was protecting when it decided to appeal the recent Ruth Morrissey judgment? Who did Fianna Fail Ministers think there were protecting in 2010 when they tried to claim that the State "did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to Ireland's Magdalene laundries"? They are not protecting citizens. They are not defending their rights or vindicating their rights as human beings. They are protecting the institutions of the State and the layers of privilege and wealth that go with them.

Karl Marx famously said that the state is simply "armed bodies of men", which is true, but it is also a standing army of senior civil servants, managers, advisers and learned lawyers whose class instincts at all times are to treat victims of abuse, injustice or of failures of the State as enemies of the State, to be denied, shunned, ridiculed and threatened if they try to expose those failures. Despite the pious statements from the Minister and the Taoiseach, I bet that we will be back here again when another hero or heroine faces down the threats of the State and is vindicated. This is not the last time because, unfortunately, we do not seem to have learnt lessons from this litany of tragedy in the history of the State.

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