Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The right to identity, to know who we are, is fundamental. Whether these babies were removed, gifted, trafficked, placed or sold, the survivors - our fellow citizens - are entitled to the same documentary right to their identity as the rest of us. They have so far been denied it, and it should be anathema for that to be considered acceptable in a functioning republic.

I am proud of my Sinn Féin comrade, Deputy Funchion, who has been working hard on the Bill she brought forward yesterday to guarantee survivors unconditional rights to their birth certificates, care files, adoption files and all information held on them from labour to dispersal and thereafter. I am equally proud that our access to information legislation would provide in statute for the National Adoption Contact Preference Register to establish the right of a person to know if he or she is adopted.

I believe everyone agrees that the commission's report is below par. There is instituted indignity. For example, the report could not be couriered to the survivors because the Minister did not have the addresses. Yet, he had time to film a handy video presenting their suffering as content. That is not to mention the leaks given to the newspapers. It really falls short of what the survivors deserve. What has the State learned from this? I do not believe this disrespect to survivors was due to the fact that the report was such a blatant disappointment.

We have to give the women and children what they did not get back then or last week. They need dignity. This is not over. This State has to make the apology relevant. I do not mean only redress, although that is certainly needed. The stories of these women and children need to be put into our modern history curriculum in schools so that our young people can learn about the State's dysfunctional relationship with women, especially poor women. Young people need to learn how ugly 100 years of patriarchal rule looks. These women and their children - our fellow citizens - deserve no less.

Each of us is a link in the human chain. It is our fundamental right to know where we fit in our family. For the survivors there has been too much separation, darkness, secrecy, suffocation and hiding. Establishing their right to identity brings the necessary air, warmth and light to them and us as well as to our State.

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