Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

One week from its publication, this report is widely discredited. The decision of its authors to disregard the witness testimonies in its conclusions was particularly galling. To state in the report that there was "very little evidence that children were forcibly taken from their mothers" or that the commission "accepts that the mothers did not have much choice but that is not the same as 'forced' adoption" is pretty grotesque when it is clear there was no informed consent.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were the creators and the rulers of the Ireland in which these mother and baby homes flourished. It is no surprise that they would stand over this report. However, what about a Minister from the Green Party who had possession of the report for two months before publication and accepted it without any question or challenge? The Green Party received a big vote last February, and in large measure that was a vote for radical change. What is the point of the Green Party being in government if it just turns its back on radicalism and change and goes along with the old Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael show?

On Monday, we learned that the religious order which ran the mother and baby home in Bessborough in County Cork recently sold lands there for €6.85 million. The State should seize the proceeds of that sale, along with the assets of that order and all the other orders that ran the homes. Compensation should be insisted upon from the pharmaceutical companies which used the women and children as guinea pigs in their vaccine trials. The funds so raised should be used to compensate the survivors of the homes. Criminal prosecutions of those who committed crimes in the institutions should be pursued, including looking at the question which has arisen concerning forged signatures on adoption consent forms. There also needs to be a complete separation of church and State.

Last but not least, I will close with a quote:

We identify that the system facilitates human rights violations, including of the right to dignity; the right to work; the right to education; the right to health; the right to respect for a private and family life; the right to effective access to the international protection system; and the right to access justice and a remedy for rights violations. The system may constitute arbitrary detention and may also violate the right to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Is that someone talking about the mother and baby homes? No, it is a comment from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, on the direct provision system. The spirit of the mother and baby homes lives on, and the direct provision system must be ended.

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