Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It appears to be the consensus among survivors that they needed time and space to digest the findings of the report before any apology should have been given. The leaking of this report has completely undermined survivors. It was a cruel and deeply cynical move. One way or another, the report was leaked. How did it happen? Who leaked it? Who was given a copy? Surely the State could have at least done this part right but sadly the survivors have been let down yet again.

The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, when in opposition was furious when the Scally report on the cervical cancer scandal was leaked to the media by the previous Government in 2018. He said at the time that people were fed up with spin and game playing and demanded to know who was behind the leak. Fast forward to 2021. A new highly sensitive report is produced. Micheál Martin is now Taoiseach and Head of Government and we have another leak. Many feel the report was leaked in an attempt to distract from the shambolic handling by the Government of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a cynical attempt, they feel, to control the media agenda in the lead-up to the resumption of the Dáil after the Christmas break. If so, this was disgraceful and shameful.

The 3,000-page report is the culmination of a five-year investigation, which was prompted by the discovery of a mass grave of babies and children in Tuam, County Galway. It is estimated that 9,000 children died in 18 institutions between 1922 and 1998, when the last such home closed. The infant mortality rate is said to have been double the national rate, underlining the impact of neglect, malnutrition and disease. Campaigner and human rights lawyer, Dr. Maeve O'Rourke, pointed out that nothing to date had given individuals access to their own files. This has all been an exercise in talking to the public in general terms. There are still no statutory rights and, in practice, people's rights to their own information and their family's files are being denied. We have a situation of enforced disappearance, one of the most serious violations of international law, where someone is institutionalised with the involvement of the State, following which their fate and whereabouts are not disclosed by the State to their family. That needs to be remedied by the Government. This is the type of apology these people need, rather than words that can easily be forgotten. It is time to sit up in this country, to be sincere in our apology, to take stock of the suffering of these people and to take action on the ground that the victims will know is meaningful and measured and will go in some way to ease their suffering.

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