Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

Le 11 lá anois, tá ceathrar - triúr ban agus fear amháin - i mbun stailc taobh amuigh den Dáil agus éilimh thar a bheith bunúsach acu. Tá siad ag iarraidh rochtain a bheith acu ar phinsean ranníocach agus ar chárta leighis speisialta, an cárta HAA. Ceapann siad nach bhfuil an dara rogha acu ach leanúint ar aghaidh lena stailc ocrais. Is mór an náire é go bhfuil orthu é sin a dhéanamh agus muidne inár suí anseo gan tada a dhéanamh.

For 11 days now, four people have felt they have no choice but to go on hunger strike. They are drinking but they are not eating. I am extremely worried about those three women and one man who feel they have no choice but to go on hunger strike to have the most basic requests met. They are asking for a HAA medical card and access to a contributory pension. Nobody from the Minister's Government met them until Monday. They are standing there and I am ashamed, as I would say most of my colleagues are, that those four people feel they have no choice but do to this to achieve something as basic as that.

There has been a mean-spirited approach from this Government and previous governments in relation to redress for people who have been in institutions. We saw this in the mother and baby home redress scheme, where babies under six months, those who were boarded out and those who suffered because of their mixed-race background were excluded. These four people have been in institutions and suffered intergenerational trauma. They have also worked in those institutions. What they are asking for is very reasonable.

On every occasion, each government has been held to account but there have been no consequences. To go back, the special advocate for survivors, Patricia Carey, has said that the Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Act is not fit for purpose. The Justice for Magdalenes group has said "the denial to institutional abuse survivors of the HAA medical card is an intolerable injustice". To go back further, Mr. Justice John Quirke's primary recommendation for the Magdalen survivors back in 2013 was exactly that, but this was ignored. Coming forward to the mother and baby home report and the various processes that were set up following that, the OAK consultation said clearly that a HAA card should be provided. The Department of Education and Youth's consultation with residential survivors under Barbara Walshe and Catherine O'Connell said that this is the most basic request and should be satisfied.

I ask the Minister to take action, to meet those four brave and courageous people who feel they have no choice, to look at this and to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

See this speech in context