Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Fáiltím roimh an deis labhairt ar an ábhar seo. One of the major problems with the Dáil and with Leinster House is that often political parties come to a decision as to how they will vote and proceed on these really important issues before we even have the discussion or the debate. I ask the Minister to make of this an opportunity for the Dáil debate and the information brought to the Chamber to have an impact on the position the Government takes.

Not since the water charges have I seen such a level of outrage from the public over what is happening in Leinster House. The level of correspondence my office has received over recent weeks has been massive. Some Deputies have indicated 5,000 as the number of emails that have come through to their offices, and I believe the Oireachtas server was nearly stuffed with the number of emails. The sentiment in all these emails was the same: do not bury the mother and baby home records. It is as simple as that.

I wish to talk briefly about the process of the debate we are having. The initial deadline for tabling of amendments was to coincide with the debate on the Bill in the Seanad, but then the deadline was extended until Monday. On Tuesday we learned that the Government amendment had come in, after the deadline for amendments, which is incredibly strange.

My office has spoken to a coalition of mother and baby home survivors this afternoon. They are phenomenally upset with the lack of consultation on this debate. Some of them have described the debate in the Seanad, especially the Minister's contribution and engagement, as like watching mice run around a roundabout. One survivor said she could not watch it and had to leave the room. All of them said they were phenomenally disappointed by the Green Party. It is shocking to think that the Bill is being railroaded through here in the absence of consultation with the survivors.

I have tabled a number of amendments to this shocking and strange Bill, and I was happy to work with Deputies Connolly and Canney on this important issue. The proposal to lock up records with Tusla for 30 years is particularly cruel. It is a sad reality that in 30 years' time most of the former residents of the mother and baby homes will be dead. That is the truth of the matter. An interesting view has been put to me - a number of Deputies have echoed it - by so many of the former residents that it is particularly difficult to work with Tusla. For that reason my amendments will propose alternatives to Tusla, specifically the storing of records with the Department or the Adoption Authority of Ireland. What the Government needs to understand is that, in general, people in this position do not have a good relationship with Tusla. Former residents of mother and baby homes and people trying to locate their birth mother or biological relatives have said this over and over again. The majority of people who were born in a mother and baby home are getting on in years. They have said to me that Tusla does not realise the urgency of their locating their families. The Minister can imagine that for someone who is 60 years old and trying to find information on his or her mother, every single hurdle that Tusla puts in that person's path, whether a piece of red tape or a delay in information, makes the chance of reunion with the mother slimmer and slimmer. Given how difficult many in Tusla have been on this front, it is totally inappropriate for the agency to take charge of these records. Nobody should have to resort to a freedom of information request to find out his or her own personal records.

Survivors of institutional abuse have been contacting me and Aontú representatives across the country with their concerns. They have said this Bill, as originally written, has huge flaws. For example, if people just want to access their medical records - perhaps someone had smallpox as a child - my understanding is that that information, if it were unearthed by the commission, would not be given to the individuals themselves. I have also heard that if survivors have testified before the commission, under this Bill they will not even be given access to the transcripts of their own testimonies. How incredible is that?

I know we will have time to discuss this tomorrow and debate the amendments, but I have a simple question for the Minister in the last few seconds I have. The commission was originally due to issue its first report in 2018. An extension was granted until January 2019, then until February 2019, again until February 2020 and then until June 2020. Now we are told it will happen by the end of this month. Can the Minister bring some clarity to the status of the report and simply tell us definitively, when will it be published?

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