Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is one of the sad occasions where we have to revisit our history. It is history long past in some cases and fairly recent history in other cases. As a Government party supporter I will vote whatever way the Government wishes to vote. I am aware of all the circumstances, the need and the urgency. I am aware of the need to protect and preserve the records for the future and all of that. However, this is a different issue. This issue affects women and children who were forgotten for years. The women of today and yesteryear are afraid of being forgotten again. They are afraid of the issue being pushed to one side. They are afraid their children and their children's children will have to suffer in silence knowing what they knew and what they experienced and knowing there was no end to it. They were a group at a time in our society when the position of women was not recognised at all. Sadly, they carried a great deal of responsibility. They worked hard to build a nation. They made up more than 50% of the requirement in a household and they were badly treated.

I know that in previous debates in this House the blame was levelled at the churches. I do not level it at the churches at all. I level it at society. Society, as it was, decided to treat women in a particularly careless, callous and heartless fashion at a time when they needed help and support. When I was a child growing up, I saw all around me the evidence of that particular era. We were only children but we all knew about the mother and baby homes. We were not supposed to know but we knew where the women were gone. They were gone to be forgotten, sadly. I do not blame it on the churches because it was not unique to Ireland. It was right across the globe, including in our neighbouring island. Thomas Hardy wrote about it, as did George Eliot. The sequence never changed. It was always the same. It was always about pushing them to one side to be forgotten and there was no mention of it. It was an unmentionable subject.

Since we are dealing with this kind of situation, like others, I appeal to the Minister to think carefully of how he can bring a personal touch to this and how he can make clear to everyone that this is not a matter of forgetting forever. It is not a matter of putting it behind us and forgetting about it forever again. That is not what we need to do now. What we need to do now is recognise the harm and ill that was done and the difficulties for the women of that era and their families. Our society knew what was happening at the time. Let there be no doubt about that. They knew full well what was happening, but it was not the "in" thing to do and people could not show any compassion.

There was a sense that one should not associate with what was wrong and try to amend it and our society did not do it. Furthermore, society is peculiar and harsh and it has turned its back in many situations over the years and walked away with no responsibility. Then, in the aftermath it says that should not have happened. We know it should not have happened but it did.

I do not want to delay the proceedings of the House but I want to say there is enough tragic history wound up in this particular subject to be able to convince us that in doing whatever we have to do, we must protect the records - that has to be done - we recognise the wrongs that were done, we recognise the failings in our society and we recognise the need to remember the harm and ill that was done to the women and children concerned. That is all I ask.

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