Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get two minutes to talk about this sorrowful saga, which has gone on for many years in our State. First, I ask, like others, who leaked the report. Was it strategy by the Government? How did it happen? Who leaked it and who was given copies of it? I welcome the State and other bodies saying they are sorry but I believe the law of the land should be applied wherever it can be in any cases that need to be remedied or sorted out. To go back only a few years, we saw how willing was the State to get involved in County Kerry with the Kerry babies case. We know what wrongs happened there, yet the Garda was used to the maximum there. The murder squad and the highest people in that force were down there at that time.

It amazes me that this saga continued until 1998. I did not know that. The Government Members voted a few weeks ago to hide and stash away details of people for 30 years. They got it in the neck, however, from people around the country and were sorry a couple of days later. Now they are trying to remedy themselves. It is a fundamental right of any person to know who he or she is, where he or she came from, who his or her parents were or as much knowledge as can be obtained. People are entitled to know that and it should not be hidden away from them anywhere.

What happened was wrong. Pregnant girls were forced into mother and baby homes and even into county homes and boys and girls were forced to go out to work as hard as they could for wealthy farmers. That was wrong and on top of that, they were not treated like human beings. Many of them were fed in the yard or the dairy or their dinner was handed out the window to them. That was wrong and I resent and reject those people who did those bad things to other people because human life is precious. Everyone has the same right to live and should be treated equally. Clearly, these people in our past were not so treated. If there are any people still wandering around from 1998 or back to 1988 that have done wrong, they should be apprehended and brought to task for it.

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