Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I was taken with a number of aspects of the Minister's contribution, in particular, his point that the Government is not tabling a countermotion because it is willing to provide practical solutions. That suggests the motion does not aim to provide practical solutions. I have an alternative view as to why the Government is not tabling a countermotion. It was reported in yesterday's newspapers that it would not do so and would allow the motion pass and then sit on its hands and do nothing.

This commission of investigation will dissolve unless the Government extends it. By sitting on its hands, the Government enables the State to become further complicit in the dissolution of a commission that has added to the retraumatisation of those to whom it set out to give dignity and truth. When people sit on their hands and do nothing, they become complicit.

In the months since this issue re-emerged and the Government forced through legislation in October, I have seen this descent into complicity. I have seen how people who I fundamentally believe are good and have good intentions can become complicit in the continuum of abuse, State-sponsored incarceration and horror that have been endemic in this country and were magnified to their fullest in the realities of the historical abuses in mother and baby homes. What we are seeing now and what we will see tomorrow, when Government Deputies sit on their hands and do nothing as a way of absolving themselves from blame, is further testimony to that. I call that out now because it is wrong. Those who claim they are somewhat confused or feel guilty, yet do nothing, are worse again.

We know the histories now. We have heard the stories of abuse and seen the retraumatisation of victims. Survivors have every right to take a judicial review, yet the Government continues to close its eyes and patronisingly tells them it will work with them. At every step of the way, good people have stood in this Chamber and asked us to trust them before being dragged into doing the right thing. That has happened a number of times. In the past couple months, the Minister told us GDPR rights did not apply in this case. When survivors and activists stood up and called foul on that, GDPR suddenly did apply. The Government said there would be no access to the archives. People again had to mobilise and relive their traumas by taking to the national airwaves to say this was important. Then, all of a sudden, we learned that there would be access to the archives.

In the past couple of weeks, right up until last night, people who, in my eyes, are competent and decent and want to do the right thing, adopted the line of the State and the institutions of power in this country by saying the testimonies were irretrievable and that 550 testimonies of abuse, incarceration and suffering of the most horrific kind were gone. They willingly said on the national airwaves and in Parliament that these documents were gone. Then, at the very last moment, they suddenly changed their minds again. I am fascinated by this descent into complicity. Is that how power works? Is that how we become manipulated? Is that how we become part of the continuation of abuse by people in this State of victims who have done no wrong?

It is wrong and I believe that today and tomorrow, people who say they are morally conflicted will sit on their hands and do nothing. They will watch the dissolution of a commission although it needs to stay in place because its work is not yet finished.

If we want to remember why we are at this point we have to go back to why we started in the first place. This started because 796 bodies of babies were found in Tuam. Then we had a situation in which public outcry resulted in politicians coming into the Dáil and saying that we would aspire to do better. The mechanism by which we would aspire to do better was to begin another commission of investigation. It appears that the commission of investigation was just a way of stopping public hostility at a point where it was going to really take hold in calling for truth and justice. We had a commission that went on for years and when the report came back, the worst possible results emerged. Victims are standing forward and saying their truth was, at best, not presented clearly and at worst, manipulated to serve a particular agenda.

I wish to highlight some of the work that has been done by Dr. Maeve O'Rourke, who has been incredible in recent years in standing up for truth and justice. Dr. O'Rourke has stated "The Commission finds, for example... there are no recommendations for redress for arbitrary detention". That is horrific. The Government should not tell those survivors and victims that they were not arbitrarily detained. The fact that a commission was able to make such a finding is wrong and I cannot stand over that. On forced labour, Dr. O'Rourke has stated "The Commission recommends that Magdalene Laundry-like redress should only be available for women in county homes,... women in Tuam,... women who worked outside the institutions without pay" and for nobody else. On unlawful and unregulated family separation, Dr. O'Rourke stated "The Commission makes no recommendations at all for redress for the unlawful or unregulated separation of mothers and children." That is horrific. She continued by stating "The Commission found very little evidence that children were forcibly taken from their mothers; it accepts mothers did not have much choice but that is not the same as 'forced' adoption." How we create words and how we put words on paper has meaning and it causes harm. I cannot believe that we would tell survivors that although their children were forcibly taken from them, that was not the same as forced adoption. It is a cruel manipulation of words. Dr. O'Rourke also refers to the harm caused to children in unsupervised care situations following their separation from their mother and family, including through boarding out, and domestic and foreign adoption. She noted "The Commission makes no recommendation for redress for harm caused to boarded out children".

As this commission dissolves, cases will be taken for judicial review. Who can these victims tell of their suffering and the experiences that they verbalised? They have had to relive their traumas. When they want to challenge these findings, how can they do so as the Minister allows this commission to dissolve? That is a question we need to ask ourselves and that the Minister needs to ask himself. That is a question that every single Government representative who intends to sit on his or her hands and do nothing tomorrow when the vote comes along needs to ask him or herself. As this commission dissolves, are those Government representatives further enabling themselves to be complicit in the retraumatisation of victims and the continuation of their abuse.

Since the foundation of the State, right through these mother and baby homes and the history of institutional abuse, incarceration and forced separation, there were people who stood up and believed themselves to be good. People enabled these acts to take place, all while these horrors were committed. When the Taoiseach stood up in this Chamber a couple of months ago, apologised on behalf of society and invoked societal complicity as a way of diluting the roles of the church and the State, it was another example. In ten years' time, when we fully realise the implication of allowing this commission to dissolve without first finishing its job, will we say again that society was complicit in this? It was not. It was society that ensured that these documents were retrieved and that the Government was not able to cover up. This is an example of society saying "No" all the way through and the State still forcing its agenda.

We see that through a multitude of forms. In yesterday's edition of The Irish Times, one could see a genuinely wrong scenario, whereby a representative of the commission invoked moral and legal authority in talking about these records. The Government is proudly saying these same records have been retrieved and that the commission has done a good job in doing so.

A representative of that same commission yesterday gave quotes to The Irish Timesand invoked moral authority. In this age, when we almost have come to a full realisation of the horrors, we still enabled a powerful person in the State invoke moral authority. There are no grounds for anyone who is a representative of this State to invoke moral authority when trying to further the cover-up of silence in this country. There are no grounds for trust here. We have failed survivors time and time again. Tomorrow, the Government will fail them again when it sits on its hands, does nothing and allows the commission to dissolve. We have no right to ask for trust.

We are calling for an extension of the commission because its job is not yet finished. There is a further job that needs to be added to that, and that is accountability. Nobody gets to walk away, wash their hands and say their job is done while survivors are being re-traumatised even now.

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