Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This report is the story of a buried past, uncovering buried lives and a buried truth. In some respects, it confirms what was long suspected. In others, it reveals a more nuanced and more challenging narrative. The commission of investigation has spent many years finding the truth in order that we can now begin to provide some measure of healing and reconciliation, and, above all, make restitution.

As a country, we owe a debt to Judge Yvonne Murphy, Dr. William Duncan, Professor Mary Daly and their expert team. Above all, we owe a debt to the survivors who provided testimony and to the work of people who brought the issue of mother and baby institutions to the fore. A special mention must be made of Catherine Corless, whose painstaking scholarship and humble compassion lit the candle which allowed us to reopen and read this dark chapter of our history.

As Tánaiste, as a former Taoiseach, as the leader of my party, which was in government for some of the relevant period, as a member of the Government which established this commission, as a citizen and as a man, I offer my apology to the children who were hidden away at birth, discarded in death or, in life, treated as a commodity or as second-class citizens, as well as to the mothers for whom there was no other option but to enter a mother and baby institution and give up their child. They may have consented but it was not free and informal consent in the way we understand that concept today. We apologise and we ask for their forgiveness.

This report shames Irish society entirely. Women pregnant outside of marriage, some very young, some the victims of rape, were not supported by their families, communities or by fathers of their children. They turned to the church and State for refuge. While they got a refuge, it was a cold and often cruel one. Church and State ran these homes together, operating hand in glove, equally culpable, doing so with the full knowledge, acquiesce and even support of wider society. Church and State reinforced social prejudice and judgment when they should have tried to change them. It must not be forgotten that illegitimacy was not a social prejudice but the law of the land, a law passed in the House in 1931 by our forebears. As was often the case in those days, it was a law very much guided by the Catholic social teaching of the day.

For too many years Ireland was a cold house for children born outside of marriage. This report exposes the chilling consequences of such a mindset. Too many children were seen as a stain on society. The truth, however, is that it was our society that was deeply stained. As the report shows, this was a stifling, oppressive and deeply misogynistic culture. It was a cold house for most of its people for most of its existence.

It is shocking to read that more than 9,000 babies died in these institutions - I dare not call them homes. In some ways, it is more shocking that this is not a revelation. The statistics were known at the time. It was known that children in mother and baby institutions were more likely to die in infancy than other children, including other children born outside of marriage. There was no public outcry, no Cabinet memos for the first 50 years, no Dáil debates or motions, few media inquiries or interest. These were second-class citizens, lesser mortals, to be treated as such, perhaps for their whole lives, solely due to the circumstances of their conception and birth. It was a conspiracy of shame and silence and cruelty.

I particularly feel for the children who were boarded out. This was not fostering as we know it today. While there were exceptions, children boarded out were not raised as one of the family. Boys were used as unpaid farm labour and girls as carers or house servants. Their interests were not put first or second. Their education unimportant. This was profoundly wrong and they continue to suffer for it today.

The survivors of the mother and baby institutions, alongside the survivors of industrial schools, constitute Ireland's stolen generation. As a society and as a State, we stole from them the lives they should have had, raised by their mothers in their own communities, known to their fathers, brought up to believe they were as good as anyone else and could grow up to be anyone they wanted to be. It is late in the day but now is our opportunity to make restitution on behalf of the generations who preceded us. The means by which we do so should be guided by the men and women who survived these institutions. They should be given time to read and reflect on the report. They should inform us as to the next steps.

The commission, in its recommendations, points the way. As the Taoiseach said, this should include a formal State apology, appropriate memorialisation, better access to health services, counselling and housing, as well as access to records and information about themselves, including birth certificates and medical records, financial reparations, a repository to archive all of the documents relating to residential institutions to ensure further study can be conducted and assistance with advocacy. We should not forget the survivors now living overseas and in Northern Ireland where inquiries are less advanced.

This report teaches us that when good people believe bad things about others, then terrible actions can be rationalised away. There are lessons here for us as a society and a State. A meaningful response has to go beyond denouncing the horrors of the past from the safety of the present. People want to know their own truth, to find the part of themselves that for too long was forbidden or kept secret. We must facilitate that.

The commission was an excavation into our past. It succeeded in uncovering part of our collective history and heritage. What we now know is compelling and crying out for resolution.

As a Government, we will do what we can to provide it.

Today is a day of atonement, when we express our horror and sorrow at the story of Ireland told in this report, and when we promise to do right by those who suffered. In doing so, we should not lose sight of the hopeful story that is also told in the commission’s report. It tells the story of a country that has changed and progressed and that is far from perfect but has got kinder, better and more compassionate, more loving and less judgmental, and less misogynistic as the years passed. The flatlets and houses of the 1980s and 1990s were very different to the mother and baby institutions of the 1950s and 1960s and the county homes and workhouses that preceded them.

The commission tells a story of enormous change. This is a story of social progress as the years and decades moved on: legal adoption in the 1950s; sex education in our schools, social welfare payments for lone parents, which gave them real options from the mid-1970s; the introduction of free healthcare for pregnant women and newborns; changing attitudes to sexual morality and personal freedom; a less deferential view of the church and a more questioning attitude to the State, legalised contraception; the Status of Children Act abolished the concept of illegitimacy from our law; the right to divorce and remarry; the slow but steady dismantling of the architecture of patriarchy on which our State was formed; huge improvements in maternity care and neonatal care, leading to a situation whereby death in pregnancy or in the early years of life is now exceptionally rare in this country; the children’s rights amendment to our Constitution; new laws and new attitudes to consent and domestic violence; Children First and we had the introduction of mandatory reporting of child abuse; and the ongoing decongregation of our residential institutions for people with disabilities or mental illness in favour of community living, often facing objections.

We should not be afraid or embarrassed to reflect on how much we have changed as a society and as a State, and how far we have come. Doing so does not belittle in any way the maltreatment and experiences of women and children in the mother and baby institutions; rather, it reinforces how awful they truly were. The fact that today’s standards are better is not an excuse for the poor standards of the past, nor should we think that today our standards are good enough for the future. Decades hence, people may look back on this time and point to our failings too and have to apologise for them.

As we read this report, both hopeful and shameful, it should spur us on now to do better in the years to come, not just for the women and children who survived the mother and baby institutions but also for the women and children of today and of the future. Today we understand a little better the tears that were shed over many decades by those who were judged so harshly and by those who had their human rights dishonoured. We cannot change the past but we can rededicate ourselves to giving people their truth, recognising the hurt and damage that was caused, saying sorry, making amends and seeking forgiveness.

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