Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This has already been put far more eloquently than I can put it by some of my colleagues over the past couple of hours. The stories that have been told are absolutely heartbreaking. Mother and baby homes are part of a long history in this State. Not only did we fail women and children but we also set up structures that attacked them, sold them, neglected them, abused them and much more. We owe a debt of gratitude to the women who came forward to the commission as witnesses. The State owes a debt to the women. We need to repay this with justice and compassion. We are talking about a State that put the women and their families through hell. The great and the good, the politicians and all the institutions of the State protected this apparatus. Many have spoken about the absolute powerlessness of the women. The testimonies include the statements: "[W]e were locked in and there was absolutely no way of getting out"; "I was in terrible pain and was afraid but when I screamed or called for help I was abused"; "[F]ollowing some pressure, I ultimately signed the papers"; and "I was not given any other options". Some of these phrases may have been repeated. I heard many others today, and all of them are absolutely heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.

It has been said by many here that the Minister is not responsible for the inbuilt problems associated with the commission, but the fact is that we are dealing with people who have been absolutely failed and traumatised. What we do not need to do is retraumatise them. Therefore, we need to find a solution. We need to find a solution that means we do not seal away the witness statements. I accept that we need solutions on anonymisation. That can be done but what we need to do at this point is put in place a stopgap measure. We need to be able to stall this. We need to legislate to give ourselves time to have an all-party solution and deal with the stakeholders, the heroic women who have led dreadful lives owing to their having been put upon by this State. I cannot state enough that we owe them a debt. We must show compassion and sensitivity and we cannot fail them once again. Rightly or wrongly, they feel they have been failed. They are not happy that Tusla is to be the repository of the witness statements. The rights and wrongs of Tusla do not come into the equation because these women are not happy with this. We need to ensure a solution that offers them justice and gives them the respect they deserve. I am aware the Minister and Members in both the Opposition and Government benches want to do the right thing, so I beseech the Minister to find a way to do the right thing by the women, who have been failed for many years.

See this speech in context