Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I would like to start by extending sympathy to the family and friends of Timmy Hourihane.

A sharp clash is looming between the interests of the church and the interests of the State in Cork city. I refer to the decision of the Sisters of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to withdraw from involvement at Bessborough by the end of the year, to attempt to sell the land there and to effectively evict the onsite services which cater to the needs of vulnerable families, especially women and children at the Bessborough campus. These services include fostering services, psychological services, secondary school services, family outreach services, services for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, and supervised access services. The centre caters for the needs of 50 families every week. Residential accommodation is provided for six vulnerable adults and seven children at Bessborough. Where are these people to go now? Services are provided at Bessborough which will not be found anywhere else in this State. The parent and infant unit is just one example of this. More than 100 people work at this centre. A question mark now hangs over these jobs.

A statement issued by the staff last week said: "The nuns are about to run off with a significant amount of money, leaving none in Ireland to compensate staff or the State for the huge investment that they have made in the family services." This begs the question: is the State going to allow an order of nuns with headquarters outside this State to break up a family centre in which the State has invested €30 million? These are the same Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who ran the infamous Bessborough mother and baby home, who profited from the illegal sale of children, snatched from their mothers, to the US, Canada and Australia and who to this day have failed to account for the whereabouts of well over 800 children who died. Every June for the past five years people from all over the world have travelled to Bessborough to remember the women and children. Will that ceremony be possible if the lands are in private ownership?

I put it to the Taoiseach that the State should acquire these lands and the buildings constructed upon them preferably by way of nationalisation without compensation to guarantee the future of the family services and the jobs and to allow real discussion with survivors' groups about what work might need to be done to identify the whereabouts of the more than 800 children who died who are missing. Is the State prepared to intervene to defend this family centre and to guarantee those jobs?

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