Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A time slot of four and a half minutes gives little time to contribute to the discussion on a report which spans almost 70 years and covers 18 institutions - many more are not covered by it - 28 different Governments, ten local authorities, several religious orders, many trusted professionals, multiple churches and a society shaped by all of that. The report outlines the difficulty the commission experienced in providing its executive summary. In drafting my words today, I have some understanding of that difficulty. However, it is fair to say that the independent commission has failed to provide an executive summary that does justice to tho people who were uncared for in these institutions. In fact, in reading the full report, I feel the commission has done a disservice to its own work in the executive summary it presented. In particular, the statement that there is "no evidence that women were forced to enter mother and baby homes by the church or State authorities" has proved offensive. It does not take into account the impact of the society which the report condemns. There may not have been a court that sentenced women to these institutions but the court of public opinion dragged them there without mercy.

In preparing for this debate, I tried to see how I could contribute in a way that would add to the overall discussion. As Fianna Fáil spokesperson on local government, I would like to highlight the role of many local authorities in the running of the mother and baby homes, as set out in the report. Before doing so, I want to make clear that, in so doing, I let no Government or church off the hook. The fount of judgmental dishonour that flowed from the fonts of religious churches, particularly the Catholic Church, poisoned Irish society at every level. It infected every decision of the State and the people within it. I am not a member of any church but I am a Member of this House and I am particularly cognisant of the role of the State in this matter. In issuing a State apology, An Taoiseach acknowledged the failure of the State in this regard and the failure of all those individuals involved in the State. It is hard to pin guilt on a society but it is clear that people at every level - I refer in particular to office holders - were guilty of failing to ask the hard questions, even when the evidence was in front of them. As a people, we did not ask the hard questions. Right from the very top, with few exceptions, from Ministers responsible for local government and public health - I wish I had time to name each one of them - right down to inspectors and local authority officials, few questions were asked.

I was taken aback by much of what is in this report but particularly the evidence that when the payment for unmarried mothers was finally introduced in 1973, not one Member of this House spoke on that occasion other than the junior Minister who introduced it. That is an indictment of the body politic, the media and the society of that time. Post independence, many local authorities inherited a system of workhouses. They relied on religious orders to staff them, paid members of those orders as staff of the local authority and funded and expanded the institutions. Councillors and officials even met within the walls of those institutions. When presented with evidence of neglect, local authority staff often were deferential to the Catholic hierarchy, sometimes allowing conditions of neglect to continue as they waited out the departure of a difficult bishop. Some of the homes provided decent burials and burial records but others failed to account for where the innocent dead were buried. When I and other Members of this House say that local authorities should have more power, we should not forget this chapter of our history. When local authorities had power, remit and governance, they let down women and children. Every local authority mentioned in the report should hold a special meeting to debate and reflect on their role in this history.

Ultimately, the only way we will make this right is to implement the findings of the report and provide redress for all who suffered, not just for those who fall on one side of an arbitrary decision in 1973. It is important, in particular, that we provide access to birth information. The heat of the debate on the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters) Records, and Another Matter, Bill 2020 is still with us. My motivation and that of the Minister and many people on this side of the House in voting for that legislation was to protect that information and the database which holds it in order that the Government could legislate to enable people to access it. That trajectory will be vindicated only when people have access, and that must be the priority of the Government. In 50 years' time, the record of this House will show that we did not stay silent on this issue today. I hope we will likewise not be silent on the contemporary issues of injustice that face our society.

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