Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Last week our radio waves and newspapers were flooded with life stories and lived experiences of the survivors of the mother and baby homes and their accounts of loss and trauma, sadness and anger. The stories were very difficult to listen to and I cannot even begin to imagine what it was like to have lived and be still living through it. I hope that telling those stories helped even a little bit.

This has certainly gone some way to helping us, as a nation, understand what many had to suffer in the name of our State and church. I am hopeful we are ready as a country finally to deal with these matters and make amends for all the wrongs that were done to innocent children and women. It is time to lift the veil of guilt and shame that has shaped this nation for so long and work with the survivors to provide what they need for us to make amends.

I have three requests of the Minister and his Government. The first deals with the report and its framing. The second relates to the next steps and what is needed to rebuild trust with survivors. The third deals specifically with accountability, whether this is financial, criminal, individual or institutional.

Last week I, along with many others, including the survivors themselves, was shocked by the contents of the commission's report and by its tone. I was shocked by the coldness of the words that were used, the victim-blaming that sounded loudly from the pages and the disconnect between the stories of the survivors and many of the conclusions that were drawn from them. The choice of language, the tone used and the narrative construed about women at that time almost seemed to belong to that time, as if we had not actually moved on in our discourse at all. If we have learned one thing from this experience, it is that we must all speak out and name it when we see people being treated badly or being spoken about unfairly.

To remain silent is to be complicit. While I recognise that this is an independent report, the Government's opinion of it should be on the record. Otherwise, the Government runs the risk of survivors believing that the sentiments of the report and of the Government are one and the same. I acknowledge that the Minister mentioned the tone of the report in his statement when he said it was clear that survivors have been disappointed by the tone and language, citing sections where a strictly legalistic approach was taken, but I want to know how he feels about the tone, content and findings of the report. Do he and his Government agree with the document, its recommendations and the narrative it has spun? Does he agree that responsibility for the harsh treatment rests mainly with the fathers of the children and their own immediate families? Does he agree that there was no evidence that women were forced into mother and baby homes by the church or the State authorities? Does he agree that there was no evidence of abuse? I urge the Minister and the Government to outline clearly on the public record their opinion of the report. They do not need to set it aside but I want to know - and the survivors deserve to know - what they think of what is in that document.

Regarding the next steps and actions the survivors need to see, we now face a difficult balancing act. Survivors have waited for years for successive governments to make amends for what happened and to implement the measures that are needed so there is a need to address these issues quickly. However, many of them are complex and sensitive and will require significant consultation to ensure that we get it right. Never before have I felt that the words "make haste slowly" take on such an appropriate meaning. This needs to be done deliberatively, collaboratively and with compassion. There is no room for any further undermining of the trust of survivors or for broken promises. It will take time to get it right but survivors need to see that the Government is taking its responsibilities seriously and is demonstrating its intent to act in their interests. There are things that can be done in the short term to ensure the Government is travelling in the right direction and that will help to rebuild trust with the survivors.

I welcome the fact that the Minister said that GDPR legislation and the requirements thereunder will be made clear to both the agencies and survivors. That is an important first step. The Government should reassert this right by making a simple legislative amendment to the Civil Registration Act to ensure that everyone can retrieve their publicly registered birth certificate. I note that some of the other parties have said that they will publish such legislation, which the Social Democrats will support if it achieves that end. The Government must also move quickly to nationalise all data and records relating to the mother and baby homes and similar institutions. We must immediately protect and secure this data. The time for voluntary engagement is past.

Regarding redress, the Government must learn from past mistakes. It must not retraumatise survivors with questions or interrogations - it must be transparent, it must prioritise the rights of survivors over the costs to the State and it must not allow years to go by without redress being made. History has shown that our institutions have not only caused hurt in the past, but can cause hurt and pain for survivors well into the future and this is what must end.

Finally, survivors need to see accountability, which can be financial, criminal, individual or institutional. It is important that the intent of the Government is clear from the start, which is why I am concerned by the heads of the burials legislation which will be scrutinised by the Oireachtas Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration shortly. This will be a litmus test as to how closely the Government will listen to what the survivors need and to their wishes. Unfortunately, I have already been made aware of a number of limitations inherent in the Bill which I will be discussing as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process. The Bill as currently drafted does not improve much on the 2019 general scheme and could limit the potential for holding inquests and declaring certain burial sites to be crime scenes. I will be working closely with survivor groups during this process because it is so important that we get this right. This must also happen quickly so that certain sites can be exhumed. We know where many babies' bodies are buried and we need to do everything in our power to enable swift movement onto these sites to put names to those children. We also need to make sure that people are held accountable. Critically, we cannot allow any action to happen over the coming weeks and months that could put justice out of the reach of survivors. That is why the Government must act quickly to secure lands at Bessborough. Along with my colleague, Deputy Cairns, I am calling on the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to use his ministerial powers under the Planning Act to halt the development of those lands and to work with Cork City Council to pursue a compulsory purchase order of the site as a place of national importance. Anything less is a further insult to the survivors and their families.

It is time for the Government to do the right thing and to stand with survivors. Its actions over the coming weeks and months will give a clear insight into how responsive it will be to the needs of survivors and into whose side it is on. Will the Government be on the side of a culture and institutions that hid, sanitised and minimised wrongdoing or the side of justice for the women and children who were so badly treated, through no fault of their own?

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