Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this case and this issue. The life story she outlined is harrowing. I accept the presentation she has made in respect of that life journey and what happened in our past as regards institutionalisation and how our society evolved in respect of children who were subsequently adopted and children who were placed in less than ideal situations. The Deputy said that the child in question was brought to a farm and essentially used as slave labour in shocking conditions.

The commission of investigation set up in 2015 was tasked with examining the use of mother and baby institutions and county homes. Their establishment was shameful. I find it very difficult to comprehend the mores of the time and how county homes evolved into mother and baby homes over the decades but the terms of reference were focused on those institutions, the mother and baby homes, that sought to provide a place of antenatal and postnatal residence to both mother and baby. That was the remit of the commission. All of that was associated with shame, blame, judgment and subsequent very harsh treatment. It took five years for the commission to complete its work. The report was voluminous in itself. The Government of the day may not have anticipated that it would take that long to complete its work. The commission's work essentially did not cover other institutions that were also associated with stigma, trauma and abuse. Going back over the past two, three and four decades, we have been investigating various institutions including industrial schools, Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes. There has been a very substantial excavation of our past as regards the institutionalisation that was rife in how society dealt with issues in the past. It has been very traumatic for many people.

It has taken a long time. It inevitably does.

The Deputy identified one institution. There may be others in different categories. It is very difficult to encompass various scenarios. In other scenarios - orphanages, and it is essentially an orphanage - other orphanages had more benign impacts or would have been of assistance to particular families as well. We can review and look at this but in fairness, in the context of the mother and baby homes, that was what the commission was asked to investigate and the redress scheme was very much in response to the commission's recommendations.

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