Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I begin by welcoming an important young visitor Minnie McDermott to the Visitors Gallery.

I again welcome yesterday's announcement about the establishment of a commission of investigation into sexual abuse in schools. I pay tribute, as I know we all do, to the Ryan brothers, David and the late Mark, for their bravery in stepping forward and speaking out about their experiences of abuse. We owe an immense debt to them and to all those survivors who have spoken out and shone a light into the dark and shameful past of abuse in schools. Their courage provided the impetus for Mary O'Toole's scoping inquiry which has now led to this commission.

However, we must learn lessons from past investigations and inquiries, some of which we know failed to deliver truth, justice, accountability and indeed healing for victims and survivors. As a barrister, I represented survivors of abuse in court and before the Residential Institutions Redress Board in the past. There I witnessed the deeply traumatic impact that flawed procedures can have for survivors in bringing complaints of childhood abuse. Many survivors described to me their experience of being retraumatised by flawed and unduly complex and cumbersome processes, for example, before the redress board in the 1990s.

More recently we know the terms of reference of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes excluded a great many people who had suffered immensely. In addition, when the work of the commission was completed, its findings found their way to survivors through a leak to the press, which was unacceptable. Even now it is really unfortunate that victims have been left waiting years for appropriate redress. We must ensure this new and welcome commission avoids the mistakes of the past.

I welcome that the Taoiseach has spoken of an inclusive and survivor-led approach, which is vital. However, we also need to ensure that religious orders that were complicit in the sexual abuse of children should be required to provide appropriate redress to survivors. One survivor Louise O'Keeffe told "Morning Ireland" today that the framework is there. We must also ensure access to redress for survivors on a timely basis. I raised this with the Taoiseach during the Taoiseach's Questions session yesterday. I raised the question of a parallel redress process. I think he might have misunderstood me because in his reply he said it would not be possible to set up a redress scheme in advance of an inquiry; I accept that. However, we asked that a redress scheme might run in parallel with the commission. We are conscious the commission will run for at least five years and we do not believe survivors should be forced to wait a further five years for the outcome of the process.

Returning to the question of redress, survivors need assurance that organisations, religious bodies, religious orders and the church that were accountable and responsible for abuse should be made to pay. Church and State and also religious orders played a shameful role as we know. In particular within religious orders, clerics were allowed in some cases to perpetrate appalling crimes against children with impunity. We need to go further than condemnation; we need to remove legal obstacles to pursuing religious orders. Labour produced a Bill to do that. Will the Government accept that Bill and move forward? Will the Taoiseach ensure redress is available to survivors within five years?

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