Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The failure to record the deaths and burials of so-called illegitimate and abandoned children who died in various institutions during the last century is appalling. Now the Minister wants to bury any actual records that are there for the next 30 years so as not to acknowledge at all the lives of these babies.

The reason archives are important is because they are evidence of events in the past that give us some certainty about what happened, if used intelligently and carefully, in the era of fake news and the supremacy of opinion over fact. Archives are a bulwark against mischievous or uninformed attempts to rewrite history. We need to value, cherish and understand them. Do not suppress the mother and baby home records. Surely we, as a nation, have wronged those who were in these homes enough already. Now is the time for us as a nation to accept that those citizens who were in these homes were dreadfully wronged, and we as a nation owe it to these people to make any relevant records available to them.

Under the Bill, some of the records gathered by the commission, a database and related records of women and children detained in 11 mother and baby homes, will be given to Tusla. The rest of the archive will go to the Minister for sealing. How is it acceptable to release some but not all of the records? These women and babies have the right to their history to be at least acknowledged and the right to access their records. The Minister does not have the right to lock up these records for the next 30 years. The secrecy has gone on for too long. It is enough. Do not let these mothers and babies down again. It is time we as a country did the right thing. It is time the Government decided to think twice before rushing this through. Enough is enough and it is time to side with the survivors.

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