Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag filleadh ar árais na máithreacha agus naíonán. Tá mé ag impí ar an Taoiseach ag an bpointe seo, ciall ceannaithe a bheith aige, an rud ceart a dhéanamh, agus an scéim lochtach seo a tharraingt siar. I am wearing a jacket that is ill-fitting. I wear it out of respect for a woman who spent time in a mother and baby home. I wear it to be in touch with her spirit. She was allergic to the doublespeak and hypocrisy that this Government and previous Governments have persisted with. Perhaps the fact that it is ill-fitting stands as a metaphor for the ill-fitting scheme the Government is bringing in. It is telling us that the scheme is based on human rights when it is completely and utterly the opposite.

In 2003, some 20 years ago, the redress scheme came in. It was judged as being inefficient, long-winded, inadequate and wrong. People who availed of it had to waive their rights. I participated in that scheme, and it was and remains an offence to tell any of the Deputies here the amount of money the person I represented got. That was in 2003 and we were supposed to learn from that experience. Fast forward ten years to 2013 and the advent of the issues relating to the Magdalen laundries. Did we learn? Did the High Court beg us to learn and to plan out the next scheme in a fair and just way? Did we what?

Here we are again. Later this evening we will be pushing through legislation that is discriminatory, divisive and utterly based on cost-containment measures. The apology given by the State recognised that it failed the mothers and children in these homes. What should come from that is a universal scheme following on from the Oak consultation. Members of the Government have told us that it is monetary and that there are other ways of making it up to people. We have been told that the Government is going further than the commission of investigation and the interdepartmental committee recommended. All of that is disingenuous.

The report from the commission of investigation is utterly flawed. The commissioners refused to come before an Oireachtas committee, while one of them thought it proper to attend a seminar in Oxford. Various survivors were obliged to go to court. As a result, 64 paragraphs of the report are now acknowledged as being inaccurate. Reference has been made to the interdepartmental group's report. The group provided a number of options, one of which was that everyone should be included. The Irish Examinerused the freedom of information legislation in order to elicit information as to how the arbitrary, cruel and unacceptable six-month cut-off point was arrived at. Does the Taoiseach know the answer we got? The assistant principal in the Department said, in this regard, that it was not the appropriate time to provide that information while the deliberative process was ongoing. I would have thought that this is the very time we need information from the Government as to how it reached its decision on this arbitrary cut-off point and how those who were boarded out and those who suffered as a result of being mixed race were ignored. At the very least, we deserve honesty at this point - 20 years after the establishment of the first redress board.

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