Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Ireland of today may seem to be a million miles away from the Ireland that the survivors of these institutions remember. This was the Ireland where, as children, their daily lives consisted of abuse, neglect and distress. They were shunned by society and failed by the State. That Ireland will not be gone, however, until the survivors get the recognition and redress they deserve. These people went into these institutions as children. They are now adults, having survived, despite the State’s failures, and standing firm in the face of successive governments that have been stubborn in their refusal to acknowledge their fight for justice.

The average age of the survivors of residential institutional abuse now stands at 69, yet incredibly for survivors who spent years working for nothing - I ask the Minister to let that concept sink in - in residential institutions, getting access to a contributory State pension is still an uphill struggle. That must change. Even something as basic as access to their personal information is not guaranteed. A lovely lady, whom I know quite well, called to my office the other day. She was asking if I could help her to find out how long she was in such an institution as she could not access her own information and could not remember. The lady is old and ill, and should not have to beg for what is hers by right. As the Sinn Féin spokesperson for older people, I find this extremely unacceptable. We are becoming an older nation and have a lot of older people who deserve to be respected. Survivors deserve more. They need real support and not half-baked solutions.

In short, this Bill needs to include all of the key recommendations contained in the pre-legislative report of the joint committee published last December. Those recommendations include equal access to all support for all survivors and making survivors living abroad eligible for a payment. By the way, €3,000 is not enough. The recommendations also include the provision of a State contributory pension in recognition of the years survivors spent working for nothing in those institutions. That would allow them to live out their lives with dignity. These people have already been failed by the State and previous governments for decades. I am asking the Minister not to fail them again and to include all the report's recommendations in this Bill, to implement them and to recognise the survivors of residential institutional abuse once and for all.

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