Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to begin by expressing my support and respect for the adoptees, the mothers, the children and the advocates whose ongoing efforts have kept this subject very much alive over decades at this point, particularly those in my constituency or those who have been directly affected by the events relating to the Castlepollard mother and baby home in Westmeath.

I also agree with them in terms of the disappointment they have been expressing in the past few days regarding the contents of this Bill. They speak of a journey that they have been on for so long in seeking their own information, yet, consistently and constantly, they have been let down and left feeling they have failed. It beggars belief that we are back here again today and that these same people are expressing those same emotions of feeling failed once again.

Nobody in government - in fact, very few people across the country - is unaware of what the people affected wanted to see. They told us, they told us again and then they told us again. Even when they felt ignored and they felt that their words were not only falling on deaf ears, but falling on deaf ears that were attached to a very unsympathetic representative arm of the State, they continued to tell us. Many of the people who are campaigning for access to information have had to tell their personal stories, some of them very painful stories, repeatedly - far too many times - including the requirement of that information session. Whether that is in person or on the phone, it is neither necessary nor justified, in my opinion. Adoptees, mothers, survivors and advocates have already given hours and hours of testimony. Another information session, regardless of the situation in which it is done, appears very strongly to be an enforcement of power were no such enforcement is necessary. I do not believe that this approach is truly survivor-centred, nor is it a person-centred approach.

There remain substantial amounts of work to be done. As previous speakers stated , we will be putting forward amendments. As one survivor put it to me earlier this afternoon, in many ways, this is two steps forward and one step back, but her lifespan is not going to make up that difference before she finally gets to the finish line. It does not go far enough and it does not meet the repeated asks of people for whom time is simply not on their side.

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