Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme, "Who Am I?" catalogued trauma and distress. While this generated some shock among the public, those who were not shocked by all of this are those who have lived their lives seeking the answer to that profoundly simply question, "who am I?". Those also not shocked were the State and its agencies, which have known that illegal adoption and the illegal placement and trafficking of children was an essential part of the tapestry of misery and of the brutal system to which Irish women, unmarried women, poor women, young women, vulnerable women, pregnant women, mothers and their children were subjected for generations. The scandalous abuse of women in Magdalen laundries and in mother and baby homes is matched only by the mistreatment of their babies and their children. The remains of infant children in a septic tank in Tuam, or in the clay of Sean Ross Abbey and in other institutions is screaming testimony to this.

Illegal adoption was not accidental. It was not done in error. It was a calculated course of action and it was a criminal course of action. The State facilitated and colluded in robbing children of their most basic and fundamental rights. Acknowledging this reality brings us face to face with the ingrained misogyny and the cruel reactionary DNA of this State. The nature of the State is very eloquently summarised in the ministerial review just published, where the rationale for actions in the 1950s in illegal adoptions was described as, "the desire to protect young mothers from the censure of society and its epitaph of 'being fallen women' who had conceived their children 'in sin' and their children from the taint associated with illegitimacy". It should be recalled that the taint of illegitimacy was not removed from the Statute Book until 1987.

The churches, the Roman Catholic Church in particular but other churches also, the religious orders and private institutions have cases to answer and must be held to account but by far the greatest burden of accountability rests with the State. The State had full knowledge of and oversaw the mass incarceration, indeed the enslavement, of women and girls. The State and its agents stood aside as babies and children were illegally adopted, placed and trafficked. To this day, the State actively frustrates and prevents the efforts of adopted people to access their records, files, stories, history and birth certificates.

The State, which is yet to fully acknowledge, investigate and uncover the full story of illegal adoption, must act. This must be done. This means the establishment of a full public inquiry. It means a full and complete audit of every record. I and we are calling for this. The State is obliged to carry out this inquiry as a matter of absolute urgency. Delay is not acceptable.

Neither is delay acceptable in the provision of access to birth certificates for all adopted people. This is the purpose of today's legislation brought forward by my colleague, Deputy Funchion. As is readily acknowledged, it is only to be a first step in putting things right but it is important to take that first step. The need for wider information and tracing legislation, which by the way has been promised for decades, is of course unanswerable but that does not change the need for immediate action now with regard to access to birth certificates.

The Minister's position not to oppose the legislation but also not to support it is cynical and wrong. The legislation will be voted on tomorrow. I believe and hope it will be passed by the Dáil tomorrow. It must thereafter move to Committee Stage quickly without hindrance or delay. The Minister's job and the job of the Government is to work with the rest of us to ensure this then becomes law on the Statute Book without further delay. Anything short of this will simply mean more suffering for those who have suffered too much for too long all over again.

Every important journey begins with a single step. The first single step for those who have been so wronged is to allow access to birth certificates for every adopted person and thereafter we must move quickly to have a full public inquiry and to have information and tracing legislation that places the rights of the adopted person at the centre and first and foremost in that law. We have the opportunity to take this first step and I ask the Minister to take that step with us.

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