Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the establishment of the commission of investigation, which, unfortunately, is long overdue. The reality is that we will never know how many victims are not alive to see this day. Louise O'Keeffe had to fight tooth and nail to hold the State to account for the abuse she suffered. This Government and its predecessors have known for decades of the horrendous abuse endured by children who should have been in a safe place, yet it is only setting up the commission of investigation now. That said, I do welcome the commission.

I pay tribute to those children who for years felt they had no voice and that they were not listened to, with State authorities failing to question those responsible. Those authorities have questions to answer, too. What sort of a society turns a blind eye to a child making an accusation of sexual abuse? Perhaps a society in which it is permissible to lock up women for the crime of pregnancy, a society that offered the children of those women up for forced adoption and even for medical experimentation and trials, and a society where physical abuse of children was commonplace.

Why will the Government not investigate the physical abuse of children in schools? We all know it happened. One only has to listen to "Liveline" in recent weeks to hear of the torture that was inflicted on children as young as five. It was torture, and it was facilitated by our schools and our State. Where are the trauma supports for those children? Where is the forum for their truth to be heard, the harrowing stories told by elderly men and women of the torture they were subjected to day after day? This was not corporal punishment. Let us call it what was - it was torture of children. The terms of the commission should be expanded or an additional commission should be created to carry out these investigations.

What redress will be available to victims? We have seen huge delays in setting up redress schemes following previous commissions. The mother and baby institutions payment scheme only opened for applications this year. That commission first met in 2015. The Minister must ensure that we do not get a decade of delay in a redress scheme being established and she must ensure that the schools and institutions at which abuse took place make significant financial contributions to the redress scheme. This must be done in tandem with the commission gathering evidence. It is a sorry state of play that we are here again. I welcome this commission but it must be victim-centred. That is the only way to operate it.

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