Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and I have known each other for some time. I understand the difficult position he is in being a first-time Minister in a new Government and dealing with this situation but it is absolutely critical that this matter is dealt within an appropriate way.

I am from the north inner city. When I was young I would go with my friends to the Sean McDermott Street swimming pool, across the road from which there was an imposing building that we knew nothing about, other than that we brought blankets there every month or so. As children handing in clothes through the hatch we did know who the person was who took in the clothes or the situation of that person. It was only in later life that we realised the horror that took place behind the doors of the Magdalen laundries and other institutions throughout this State. Never in our worst nightmares did we think something like that could happen. The legacy of these institutions is felt across the State and, in my opinion, across the world because so many of our people left this country because they could not live in a society that treated them so badly.

9 o’clock

I worked as a family support worker for many years. I came across women who had been in institutions. When they recounted their stories to me about their experiences, I often thought that if I wrote the stories down and put them in a book, it would go into the fiction end because the stories were so horrific that no one would really believe them. Those women suffered long-lasting lifetime trauma from what they experienced in the institutions.

There is something we miss in all of this. It is that this did not happen in isolation. It did not happen because one section of the State or society suddenly decided to do these things. This was institutionalised from the State. This could not have been done without the Garda, the Judiciary or politicians. It could not have been done without all those institutions backing it up every step of the way. There were times when I spoke to those women and they said to me that they felt they had absolutely no one to talk to or trust. They said they believed there was no one who would listen to them. They believed that the entirety of the State was complicit in all of this, and I believe it is the truth.

My wife, Angela, is adopted. She spent 25 years battling the State to try to get information about her birth mother. Every step of the way, every disappointment and blockage, is damaging to the individual involved. The people involved want to know who they are and where they came from. It matters for something as simple as when they have children. They may be asked whether there is anything in their background. I know my background and I can trace it. There was nothing my wife could trace in terms of health implications. Was there something in her line that she did not know about? That is very difficult for a mother to deal with. At every step along the way it was her information. Yet, she felt as if she was getting a state secret from someone else about someone else. That is completely wrong.

When I read the information from the Clann Project it struck me. I could read the stories out but I will not because people have done so already. It is so emotional. I have been watching this for hours. I have been glued to it for hours because it is such an important story in the history of the State. That is why it is so important that we get this right and ensure the voices and experiences of all these women and their children are heard.

It is important that we do not make one mistake. We are at a stage when so many people have stood in the Chamber and spoken. Many more have watched this for hours on end and it does not sit with them. They do not think it is right. If the thousands of people who have emailed us are saying this is simply not right, then it is incumbent on all of us, especially those on the Government side, to sit down and ask whether we should make this mistake. We should ask whether we should go through with a vote and get everyone to trawl through the convention centre tomorrow and vote on this when we could potentially be making a serious mistake.

I am really pleading at this stage. It is really difficult. I can only imagine how the people who are watching this and who have these stories are feeling and the emotions and trauma they are experiencing. I can only ask that those in the Government think about this over the coming hours and look at what people are asking them to do. They are being asked to make a different choice from the one they intend. All I can say from the bottom of my heart is how they read this and make their decisions in the coming hours and days will have such a long-term impact on thousands of people.

See this speech in context