Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We should always listen to somebody who has been around politics for longer than we have been, and for many years I have heard Deputy Mattie McGrath say, and correctly so, that rushed legislation and anything that has ever been rushed through the House is not good. We have to give time and consideration. Members have to be deeply involved. This is why I have grave concerns on behalf of the victims.

I am so sorry when I look up at the Public Gallery this evening. I know there are people at home who have been hurt, victimised, terrorised and demonised for doing nothing wrong. They should be here tonight. They should be able to listen. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic they cannot be here in person. I know they are listening and that their agony, anguish and what they have gone through is here with us in this Chamber. It is very important that each one of us realises the onus of responsibility on us as we speak as their voices.

In my humble opinion, one of the most natural, good and great things that could ever happen any human being, and it is all part of the plan, is procreation and the giving of life. In other words, girls becoming pregnant. It is the most natural thing in the world and it should be a happy and joyous occasion for any person to bring another human being into the world. Unfortunately, because of a time in our society when people were looked down upon and treated as if they were evil, criminal or had done something wrong, the beautiful child brought into the world was cast aside, instead of being able to be loved and cared for by the mother and having a proper family structure. They were treated brutally. This is a history of which we all have to be terribly ashamed. It is something of which we should be so horrified that we should never forget it. This is why we have to be mindful of what is being done and what the Government is proposing to do.

I have great reservations and concerns with regard to the locking away of records. I believe in transparency, people having information and people having the right to information. I have been saddened over many years, on listening to people who have come to me to tell me their stories and the horrors that happened to women. Women were locked in mental institutions and were institutionalised for all their lives because they had done one thing, which was to get pregnant. That did not conform with the society we had at the time - the House will excuse me for saying the God-damned society - that looked down upon a human being just because that human being got pregnant. My goodness, what was wrong in society at the time? We cannot turn back the clock but as legislators this is important and each one of us has such a responsibility, because we are now their voices and will try to do right by them in honour of both the mothers and the children. Those children had every bit as much a right to be respected, minded, nurtured and cared for as people born into what we would call, and I question it, a normal situation. I do not say it was normal but it was perceived as normal. It was horrendous.

Many years ago, I wanted to see a certain place that we will call at mental institution and I took it upon myself to do so. It had been shut from many years but I wanted to see it and I got access to it. I was allowed in to see the rooms into which young mothers were put. They were cells. There was a small window and the door was locked. These people were kept inside in those cells and classified as though there was something horrendously wrong with them or that they were a threat to society. They were institutionalised for the rest of their lives, quite simply because they had got pregnant. When I think back on it, it bothers me and upsets me to think that every person only has so long in this world and in many cases, not only were a number of years taken from these women but all of their lives. Their children were ripped away from them and perhaps not treated properly afterwards. Perhaps in some cases they got into good homes and perhaps in more cases they did not. Perhaps they were mistreated or abused. We have heard all of the individual horror stories.

No one in the Chamber has a monopoly of right in this regard. I do not, the Minister does not and neither does anyone else. As I have said many times since I started speaking, we are their voices and we have to be careful about the way we represent them and that we do it properly and in a forceful way whereby the Government makes the right decisions. I have listened very attentively to every speech made during the debate, and all I can say about every speaker, no matter what political background they have, is that they spoke from their hearts, in that they had the genuine interest of the important people, namely, the mothers and the children, at heart.

There is one other aspect of all of this of which we also have to be very careful. I heard this evening, and correctly so, people speaking about horrible things and they mentioned nuns. They spoke about horrible things that were done by certain nuns in certain places at a certain time. I am acutely aware of all of the good that was done by nuns and all the good that was done by priests in our community and our country. The one thing of which we must be mindful and careful is that we do not ever wrong anybody and that we do not every tarnish anybody. There are people who have devoted their lives to God. There are nuns and priests whose only ambition in life was the betterment of other people and they went about that. They dedicated their lives to being good people. Of course there were bad people and there were bad priests and bad nuns but there is badness among all of us. Are there not bad politicians? Are there not bad workers in every walk of life? Thankfully, not everybody is bad and we should never tarnish everybody or any group of people with the one brush. I want to make sure this does not get lost in the debate.

We have been served very well by people of various religious faiths over the years, whether in education, working in our communities or working abroad in the foreign missions. I do not mind telling this story because I have never denied it. I was elected by the people who put me here but the reason I was able to be elected was because of a nun. I could not read or write. I could not read my own name. I was not able to function in that department. The person who put me right and got me going was a nun, Sr. Regina. That lady is alive today and I owe the fact I was able to go out in the world and make a living and be here to represent people to a nun and I do not deny it. I cannot ever disrespect this and I cannot ever not admit it. I have to say it is important to me. I cannot let the situation go by in which, perhaps, nuns would be disrespected or branded with a brush that they were all horrible or bad people.

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