Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward the motion. It is very important that we debate these issues in a sensitive manner. I appreciate the Minister's bona fides. The jury is out as to how it will end up, but it is obvious that the scheme is not fit for purpose. I do not know what is wrong with our departmental system that we cannot come up with sensitive and timely schemes. The six-month requirement is as if people were on six months’ probation, and if people were not there longer than that, they are out. That is very strange to me.

We need to conclude the negotiations with the religious institutions. I remember that Michael Woods, as Minister, made the first arrangements with them and, in fairness to the religious institutions, they have been getting bashed ever since, up and down the street. They were badly needed when they were there. Did everything go right? No. Were they all bad? No, and some great work was done there. We need to draw a line under this and stop bashing them and blaming them for everything else.

The victims, the people who suffered, must be the centrepiece here. I remember a young lady – fuair sí bás and she is gone now. Her name was Peggy. I did not know her all my life until she arrived back to mind her brother. She was a wonderful lady with a wonderful story. There are some great stories that come out from people who were in these institutions, came out and were accepted back into the community. They were looked after and nourished, and they flourished. As I said, it is not simple or easy. The Sean Ross Abbey people in my own county are there as well and Catherine Corless did great work.

Are we learning from any of those awful mistakes? We saw the near-calamitous issue in Killarney recently, where the system was transporting bus loads of people – in fact, I am not sure how they were going to be transported. This was a group of newcomers who had settled into the area and then, all of a sudden, at the stroke of a pen, they were sending them to Mayo. We do not seem to have learned. Now, we have one of the most vicious and pernicious abortion regimes of any country in the world. What trauma is that going to have on women going forward? We are falling over ourselves to be liberal but we must make haste slowly.

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