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

I very much welcome this debate. It is very important and right that we acknowledge and go through this very important report, which has shone a light on such a dark time in our history and in our society in a way that, we all have to be honest and perfectly frank, we have to be ashamed of. The awful and inhuman way in which young girls and boys and children were treated by the institutions of this State, which were aiding and abetting one another at the time, is beyond belief. One saying that often comes up in conversation is "that was then and this is now". We have to be so careful that in our society at present we do not allow wrongs to continue, whether those wrongs are, for example, children being homeless or other people being homeless and not being taken care of properly by the State. We have to be so mindful.

I listened very carefully earlier to my good friend and colleague, Deputy Moynihan, talk about social media. We have to be careful about what is going on in that regard and careful that in a number of years' time we will not look back and say there were young people whose formative years were scarred or they were upset or treated badly because of social media. That could be the new form of bullying. What went on in the past in these institutions, where people were inhumanely treated, was a horrible type of degrading behaviour. Of course, it was also bullying because those people saw themselves as being so awfully powerful, with such God-almightiness in them, that they could do whatever they wanted to other human beings.

It should be remembered that there is nothing in this whole world as nice as a small young child, be it a little boy or a little girl, and seeing them coming into the world. Wherever or however they come into this world is totally immaterial; the fact is that the person is a human being. Children are so welcome into the world, and we should all be willing to do everything we can to mind, nurture, protect and educate them and get them ready for life. Unfortunately, there were people, whether in the education sphere or in those awful institutions that were called homes, who treated people in a way that was so wrong. We have all heard on local radio in recent years survivors, as we will call them, coming out and telling their stories. It is so important that we get educated and that we know their stories because in many instances we would not otherwise know the truth of the enormity of the wrongs that were done to them. Of course they should be compensated. I am not saying they are looking for compensation. The less people look for it the more they should actually get it because they are entitled to it. The institutions that hurt or harmed them should be made recompense them, not that all the money in the world can buy back their youth or the years they might have gone to bed upset, hungry, tired, cold or weary, with nobody to give them a squeeze, to tell them they are a great little boy or a great young girl or to mind them and be kind to them. It is an awful thing to think they were robbed of that.

I have a very strong message to the people who survived. I thank them for telling their stories and letting us all see that shameful time. I have a strong message to the bullies of today. I will give the House an example. When I sit down here tonight, I will more than likely get a message from a person who is very fond of messaging me continuously when I stand up in the Dáil. This person berates me personally and my family and tells me what a horrible person I am. I say to that dirty, rotten coward this: come out into the open and face me like any normal person would face me and have a debate. It is fine for this type of horribleness that goes on to happen to me. That is no problem because I am able for it, but what about young people who are not able to take that type of nastiness? I say to those cowards this: go away and do a bit of work and do something normal in life rather than looking into a computer screen and trying to figure out how to say horrible words to somebody.

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