Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with my colleagues.

Sinn Féin is supporting the motion. I thank Deputy Whitmore and her colleagues in the Social Democrats for bringing this motion to the Dáil today. Deputy Whitmore is passionate about this issue and ensuring that the voices of survivors are at the heart of every decision we make and I am happy to support the motion.

The mother and baby homes commission of investigation was originally due to report in February 2018 but it was not until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 12 January 2021, nearly three years later, that Ireland and the world first got to read another depressing account of the State and churches' appalling attitudes toward and treatment of women and children. Most of us were aghast at the findings of this report and the cold hard language used to describe the most heartbreaking of stories. I would go as far as to say that I believe this report has made the situation 100 times worse and has retraumatised survivors and done a great disservice to the brave women who came forward.

There are several fundamental reasons the commission of investigation should not be allowed to dissolve. First, it is obvious to all who are in constant contact with survivors that many survivors have not fully read the report. Many people were still only getting copies in the past week or two. That has meant they have not had the opportunity to alert the commission of serious anomalies with their testimonies.

There is also the outstanding issue of accountability around the legality of this commission destroying survivor testimonies. I accept that we have discovered in the eleventh hour that those testimonies can be retrieved but there still has to be a question answered as to why the commission believed it could do that in the first place.

During the course of its work the commission of investigation requested and was granted extension after extension. Reasons cited for the absolute need for these various extensions included the late arrival of documents from the HSE and, worryingly, the inability of the HSE to provide relevant material. Another vague reason was that the commission needed more time to further complete its robust and accurate findings. The last extension was granted due to Covid. At each time, despite many of us and many survivors and their representative groups being disappointed and frustrated at another delay, there was a degree of goodwill on everyone's part as all were united in wanting to see a comprehensive report that truthfully told their harrowing stories.

The importance of personal testimony has shown time and time again throughout history to play a vital role in our understanding and appreciation of the sacrifices made by many people. It is a little ironic that one of the reasons for an extension was there was a delay in documents being given to the commission and now, when there are serious and legitimate questions, there does not seem to be the same appreciation for the need to extend the commission.

Even with what the Minister can do today by agreeing to extend the commission, even if there was a situation of potential resignations which some have mooted, at least the entity exists and survivors may have a mechanism to amend their testimonies to reflect the reality of what they experienced and not the interpretation of that by the report's authors. I cannot emphasise enough that if the Minister is truly trying to find a resolution and is genuinely committed in this regard, he needs to listen to survivors.

I have drafted a very simple Bill. It is literally one page. That is all that has to be inserted into the legislation to extend the life of the commission and it is very important that it is done.

Yesterday evening, we heard that the back-up tapes had been fine. While I welcome this, why was there a question of them being destroyed in the first place?

My colleagues have asked some questions. At a committee last week, Deputy Ward raised the issue of verbatim records versus summaries. Now that we have the backup tapes, there is an opportunity to ensure that everything is taken down verbatim. This is a reason to extend the life of the commission. It would also give people an opportunity to pose questions or to take cases if they wanted.

I feel like a broken record when I say this, but it is not acceptable to say to people constantly that we understand, that we sympathise and that we want to do the right thing only to ignore the opportunity to do the right thing when it presents itself. The commission needs to be extended to give everyone the opportunity to get some justice. Extending it would not right all of the wrongs, but it would be part of what we needed to do. We must deal with the issues of redress, medical cards and access to birth certificates and other records. The importance of this cannot be understated. We also need answers about the report, how it was handled and why it took nearly six years. Looking at it, one can only ask how it took the commission so long to come up with such a disgraceful and whitewashed report.

We support the motion fully.

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