John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The problem with the experience of abuse from the perspective of those who have been abused is that when it happens - I refer specifically to the experience of the women in the mother and baby homes – it appears that there is a tolerance level for it and that it is tolerated by the institution in which it happens. Clearly, it was tolerated with a few notable, kindly exceptions. That tolerance serves to reinforce its validity and the belief that it is somehow justified, right and correct. That leaves those who have been abused with few options psychologically or emotionally in terms of trying to figure out exactly why it has happened. If it has been validated by the institution and tolerated by wider society, as it was, the victim is left with very few avenues to explore emotionally and psychologically. Among those avenues are the answers that it must be the individual, and that he or she must be bad and have done something wrong or none of these things would have happened to him or her.

When, over time, there is a glimmer of hope or some kindly person starts to shake the tree and some apples of truth begin to fall, and society evolves to a point where it becomes clear that these things are not tolerable in any right-thinking, healthy and modern society, we can imagine the courage it must take for the survivor to retell his or her story, find his or her voice and give expression to the horrors that he or she experienced. Equally, we can imagine how it feels for the survivors when, over time, the perception develops that there is an effort on the part of the State to conceal, make little of or hide away the very essence of the expression that those survivors gave to the reality of their lives and the courage it took to do that. There is the initial trauma, the retraumatisation of having to tell the story and the further trauma which revolves around the fear that somehow one's story might be about to be buried and made secret in some vault for many years to come.

The awful history of mother and baby homes laid bare the attitude of society and the institutions of the day in our State towards so-called fallen women, children, the labour needs of these institutions and many other failings. The narrative exposed the awful hypocrisy of the State and society, particularly with regard to its constitutional obligations towards children and women. It displayed a slavish deference to the needs of religious orders and other institutions on the part of the State and an attitude by the State towards its citizens that treated them as economic and social concessions to powerful third parties. The stories of these homes and the courageous, heroic and diligent people who helped to uncover their secrets are truly shocking and offensive to humanity by any standard. A dark, colourless tapestry of abuse was unfolded layer by layer.

It is a tribute to the modern State that such a tapestry has been revealed and such awful wounds and sores have been exposed. This means that any aspect of the findings or dealings of commissions associated with these homes should be dealt with in the most sensitive manner possible, and should always be mindful of the traumas and sensitivities of those who endured such obscene treatment. Equally, it means that the usual opportunities for exploiting vulnerabilities and manipulating the facts by those minded to do so, for example by stereotyping the responses by contemporary Governments, should be resisted strongly. In fairness to the survivors and those who did not survive, that is the least we can do. No one in this House has a monopoly on the search for the truth and justice for these women. There is not a Member of this House who does not want to see justice done and records handled sensitively with regard to those boys and girls who are now men and women, whose stories have been told in such a raw and awful manner and whose rights deserve to be vindicated.

I thank the Minister for his briefings on this legislation. When I encountered an IT problem early last week and had to contact officials in the IT section of the Houses of the Oireachtas, they informed me that 30,000 emails had passed through the Oireachtas mailing system by 4 p.m. that day. In my time here I have never witnessed such a torrent of emails from concerned citizens whose anxiety revolves around their belief that the stories of survivors will be sealed for 30 years. Clearly, that such an eventuality might be perceived as real has served only to retraumatise, as I mentioned earlier, some of those whose stories are contained in the archives and the works of the commission. There is an idea among survivors that having mustered the courage to reveal the depths of the hurt and injury done to them, and having reopened the gaping emotional and psychological wounds they exposed in the telling of those stories, the State of the 21st century is once again trying to bury the memory and the truth that has so caringly and painstakingly been uncovered and pieced together into a gruesome patchwork of the reality of their lives and the lives of others.

For our young people today, it must be truly shocking to learn of the treatment of women, children, boys, girls and babies by a generation within reach of us historically. That is one of the reasons such records and accounts must be treated with kid gloves and be respected and for which the State must muster all of its combined institutional empathy, if that is not an oxymoron. Our young people must wonder if it could even be true. That is another reason the records must be preserved and treated with the highest respect. The legitimate fear or perception that these records might be sealed would lead to the inevitable conclusion among survivors and their families that Ireland wants to forget this sordid, prolonged episode in its recent history.

At the front of every institution is a face and today, the Minister is the face that people are turning to for hope. As I said earlier, I thank him for his briefing. I share his sentiments that our duty today in this Dáil is to acknowledge again the profound failure and mistreatment of Irish women and their children. Ireland has spent the last two decades coming to terms with, and face to face with, its tawdry past. The Minister was right when he said that this debate would be watched very closely. I believe him when he says that this Bill does not seal the mother and baby homes' archive for 30 years, and I warmly welcome that clarification. I believe him when he says that the objective of the legislation being considered today is to stop invaluable information from being put beyond reach. In doing this, the Bill seeks to address some of the core concerns of those who were so badly let down in the recent past when they were robbed of their identity and their capacity to navigate the course of their own lives by virtue of being placed in a mother and baby home. I welcome the Minister's empathetic response to the anxieties and concerns among the public by clarifying that nothing in this Bill will seal important records or put invaluable information beyond reach. In fact, it is the very opposite that the Minister is trying to do. I also welcome the two measures that the Minister intends to undertake in working with the Office of the Attorney General and the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration on the re-examination of certain matters he referred to today.

I trust the Minister. I trust that his intentions are noble and honourable. Colleagues around this House who have immersed themselves far more deeply in this matter over a number of years have raised issues of concern. I know he will take them on board because they need to be addressed painstakingly. If I may quote Yeats to finish, or roughly paraphrase him, I remind the Minister that the survivors wish for the cloths of heaven and have laid their dreams under his feet, and advise him to tread carefully because he treads on their dreams.

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