Dáil debates

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Death and Burial of Children in Mother and Baby Homes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

 

The following motion was moved by Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin on Tuesday, 10 June 2014:That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges the scandal that occurred at the Bon Secours Sisters institution in Tuam, County Galway, where almost 800 children died while in the ‘care’ of a religious order, in a State regulated institution, and were placed in a mass unmarked grave over a period of five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s; notes the Government’s intention to give early consideration on the best course of action to take into investigating the deaths of these children and the appalling manner of their interment; recognises that the abusive practices which occurred at the Bon Secours Sisters mother and baby ‘care’ home were not unique to that one institution and were replicated in similar institutions across the State including what occurred at Bethany Home; and calls on the Government to: — immediately initiate a fully independent judicial inquiry, with terms of reference agreed by the Houses of the Oireachtas, into this latest shameful episode involving a religious order and the failure of the State in its duty of care to its most vulnerable and defenceless citizens; the inquiry to consider the so-called ‘care’ regime in place, the infant mortality rates and the burial of children in unmarked graves at all mother and baby homes in the State; and — set a date for the establishment of this inquiry before the Dáil summer recess and all of the Report’s findings be published.

Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:acknowledges the need to establish the facts regarding the deaths of almost 800 children at the Bon Secours Sisters institution in Tuam, County Galway between 1925 and 1961, including arrangements for the burial of these children; acknowledges that there is also a need to examine other "mother and baby homes" operational in the State in that era; recognises the plight of the mothers and children who were in these homes as a consequence of the failure of religious institutions, the State, communities and families to cherish the children of the nation in the way they should have been cherished and cared for; acknowledges the valuable work undertaken by historians, archivists and others in relation to these issues; recognises the fact that there is a clear requirement for records, both public and private, to be gathered for all mother and baby homes in the State to assist in establishing the truth regarding these institutions and the treatment of those who were in their care; believes that this latest shameful episode in Ireland’s painful social history must be fully and accurately documented in order that a comprehensive account of these institutions is available; notes that as an initial step, a group comprising senior officials across a range of Government Departments has already been established to gather information and report to the Government on the means by which this complex, disturbing and tragic situation can be best addressed; and agrees that the Government should:— complete the process of identifying the relevant information and records, public and private, pertaining to mother and baby homes in the State in an urgent and timely manner; — use the findings of the initial cross-departmental review which is already under way and is to report to the Government no later than 30 June 2014 to inform decisions on the scope, format and terms of reference of a commission of investigation; and — report back to Dáil Éireann on the establishment of this inquiry, the findings of which should in due course be published before the House rises for the summer recess.- (Minister for Children and Youth Affairs)

7:05 pm

Photo of Seán BarrettSeán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Finian McGrath has two and a half minutes. He is sharing time with Deputies Catherine Murphy, Seamus Healy and Richard Boyd Barrett.

Photo of Finian McGrathFinian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I strongly support the motion before the House on the treatment of mothers and children in institutions across the State in the past. I speak as someone who was born and bred in Tuam, County Galway. As a young child I remember these children in my class but I also remember the terrible way they were treated, especially by the broader society, and the blatant discrimination that went on at the time. There can be no running away from this issue. These were terrible times, and everybody has a responsibility to deal with this issue, particularly those in leadership and authority roles. The oppression of women, the high mortality rates in these mother and baby homes, the vaccine trials, and the secret and illegal adoptions were all part of our dark history, and we need to deal with the facts. We need the truth but, above all, we need to ensure that this never happens again in our country.

Thirty-five thousand women spent time in these homes. Seven hundred and ninety six babies died in the Tuam home, and the remains of 3,200 children are in the Castlepollard home. There was also the Bethany Home. Three thousand children in these institutions had to endure vaccine trials. We need the truth and the facts. We need a proper inquiry, and in that regard I welcome the announcement yesterday by the Minister.

I want to highlight what is happening in Ireland in 2014. The hypocrisy being engaged in, particularly by some politicians, gets up my nose, particularly when 375,000 children are experiencing deprivation in our country today. We have 1,791 children seeking asylum housed in 30 direct provision centres, some of whom have been in those centres for more than seven years. In 2012, the special rapporteur highlighted the real risk of those children suffering abuse. Almost 3,000 children and adolescents are on waiting lists for mental health services. Eighty two per cent of carers are being affected by the cuts in care packages, and 77% of families have been affected by the cuts in respite care. If the Government really cares about these issues and these children, it must also do something about what is happening to children today.

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I agree with Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance who said we should have examined these issues years ago but instead, a collective head in the sand attitude was taken. It often takes a major event for us to realise that something has to be done. As somebody else said, this was hidden in plain view.

This inquiry has to put an end to the issue, and it must be comprehensive. We are debating the Private Members' motion but the announcement has been made by the Minister. Last week I asked for the Tuam location to be declared a crime scene because there was something very unusual about the burial location. That is the reason it got so much attention around the world. An inquiry must not exclude the Garda, the State pathologist and forensic anthropologists. That must happen.

When I met the Minister yesterday I raised with him the need to include foster care and boarding out as issues that need to be addressed in addition to adoption and the drug trials. There must be an understanding of the social conditions at the time that led to what happened.

We are all affected by the people who are contacting us to tell us their stories. They want to tell their stories, and when we hear over the coming months about the impact this has had on their lives we will have a fuller understanding of the long-term consequences of the way we treated people in this country.

There are contemporary comparisons, and it would be wrong of us not to point to them. One of these is direct provision.

Children raised for extensive periods in these environments can be badly damaged. We have a responsibility to do something about this also.

7:15 pm

Photo of Séamus HealySéamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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The appalling scandal of mother and baby homes between the 1920s and 1970s was known to the State, State agencies, the Church and the Irish establishment. These homes were registered, regulated and inspected by the State under the Registration of Maternity Homes Act 1934. They were State services. They were registered, regulated and inspected officially by the State and run by religious orders. During this time the State was run by a coalition of the Government, State, legal and medical professionals and property owners. The entire Irish establishment went along with this disgraceful situation. The damning revelations we have heard in the past week to ten days are not new; Official Ireland knew all about them. It knew what went on in these homes, including forced and illegal adoptions, the disgraceful burials and so on. The Irish establishment had full knowledge of and consented to this awful situation. State inspection reports described children as being fragile, pot-bellied and emaciated. Cause of death was regularly recorded as starvation.

The reaction of shock and horror in the past ten days by the State, members of the Church and professionals is disingenuous and dishonest. I welcome the establishment of a commission of inquiry but withhold final judgment on it until I have had sight of its terms of reference. I want all homes to be investigated as part of the inquiry. Issues such as the role of the State, the Church, State agencies and Departments, local authorities and inspectors; the profile and social status of the women in these homes; the mistreatment of mothers and babies; the burial procedures; forced and illegal adoptions; vaccine trials and so on must be examined. The issue of the Magdalen laundries and the question of redress must also be addressed by the inquiry. It must be timely and commence immediately.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I commend the Government for its acceptance of the motion. I also commend Sinn Féin for tabling it. However, those whom I commend most are the people in the Visitors Gallery, including those who were here earlier when we were dealing with a modern example of the neglect of women and children in the provision of housing. It is a terrible stain not alone on our past but also on our present that the victims of these crimes, in the main, poor women and children, have had to fight to finally get an acknowledgement that a crime was committed against them. The historians and others who have trawled up the truth about what went on deserve great credit. As in the case of the industrial schools, the Magdalen laundries and Bethany Home, it should not have taken that long, bitter struggle for people to get an acknowledgement of the crimes committed against them by the Church and the State. It is not an exaggeration to say some of the things about which we have heard in Tuam and 800 skeletons being found in septic tanks are what one associates with the horrors of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, the greatest horror in human history. While what happened here is not quite on a par with it, there are elements that echo it. To think this happened in the early history of the State and continued into the 1970s is appalling.

I was born in a mother and baby home, from where I was adopted. I am a product of this system. I was one of the lucky ones who escaped, but others suffered a terrible faith. Children died of starvation or were used as guinea pigs, while families were ripped apart. It is an appalling stain on our history. It must be said the political establishment of the time colluded in a marriage of convenience with the Catholic Church to do this in order that it could selfishly control and keep down women, children and the poor in the most horrendous of circumstances. The people in the Visitors Gallery and others who are the products of this system deserve full accountability for everything done to them. Most importantly, we must ensure the mistreatment, abuse and neglect of women, children and the poor which continues to the present day is addressed.

Photo of Seán BarrettSeán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I call Deputy John O'Mahony who is sharing time with Deputies Michelle Mulherin, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, Anne Ferris, Ciara Conway and Joe O'Reilly.

Photo of John O'MahonyJohn O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on another sad chapter in the history of the country during which hundreds, if not thousands, of mothers and babies were allegedly treated in an appalling fashion by the institutions in which they had been placed. I welcome the announcement made in recent days by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan. As this is the first occasion since his appointment on which I have spoken on an issue relating to children, I take the opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment and, in particular, the calm and constructive manner with which he has responded to this issue, despite hardly having his legs under the table. We can all argue that it should have been addressed a long time ago, but it is being addressed now. I welcome the structured manner in which the Minister is approaching the issue in terms of the establishment of an interdepartmental group to gather and collate all of the relevant documentation, which work, when completed at the end of this month, will feed into the commission of investigation which will have statutory powers to investigate the mother and baby homes.

I cannot over-emphasise the fact that it is important that this matter be progressed in a methodical manner, with the pieces of the jigsaw being brought together and the real facts in relation to what happened in Tuam and elsewhere established. This needs to be done right. It would not be helpful - in fact, it could cause further hurt to those already suffering in silence - if the sensationalism we have witnessed in the media in recent days was to continue. I cannot see how it contributes in any way to addressing the issue. As we have seen in recent months, it takes time - in some cases, it has taken too long - to establish a commission of inquiry, but that has not happened in this case. It behoves all of us to hold our nerve and allow the interdepartmental group and the commission of investigation to get on with their work, establish the facts and reach their conclusions. What we need during this time is sensitivity rather than the sensationalism we have witnessed.

I welcome the statements yesterday by the Taoiseach and the Minister that everybody who wishes to contribute will have an opportunity to do so. This is not and should not be about squabbling across the floor. It is about reaching conclusions, with an input from everybody on what the terms of reference should be. There is a need for a timeframe and a conclusion of this matter as quickly as possible. The terms of reference should not be so wide that everything that happened to children in this country since the Famine is investigated. It is important to get the balance right and that we are inclusive in how we go about setting the terms of reference for the inquiry.

8 o’clock

In the meantime, we should be more sensitive than sensational. Obviously, fingers will be pointed as a result of the commission's report on the appalling treatment of the mothers and babies, but let that be done by its authors. Let us not all start doing so from today.

I agree with some of the Opposition's comments on the treatment of children in direct provision. We do not want a Dáil in 50 years to be inquiring into the appalling nature of direct provision. This needs to be dealt with, separately or otherwise. If there is some shadow here, light should be shone on it also.

7:25 pm

Photo of Mary Mitchell O'ConnorMary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I grew up in Milltown, a small village outside Tuam. I can sincerely say I am deeply saddened to learn of the extremely distressing treatment of babies and infants in the mother and baby home in Tuam. Unfortunately, this mother and baby home was not unique. It has become clear to me that such homes were like the moral dustbins for society at the time in question. They swept out of sight that which did not fit into the straitjacketed, warped view of how society should be, the then-Vatican's view of the world to the effect that every child should be born into a traditional family, of a married couple, and into a world with no contraceptives. This thinking regarded women as unclean and children as being born with mortal sin, and people who did not conform were locked in mental institutions. Anything that happened outside what was regarded as the sacred family structure was to be hidden and got rid of. As a society, we were complicit in this. It is too simplistic to lay the blame totally on the shoulders of the Bon Secours nuns. I must state categorically that there were no immaculate conceptions in the west of Ireland. Women and children were treated disgracefully, and the men, the fathers who impregnated the girls, seem to have walked away scot free. Were these girls who had babies victims of paedophilia, incest and feckless men? Irish society was an accomplice in this issue of the fallen woman. Families sent their daughters to these places. Families abandoned their own daughters and grandchildren. Many people knew what was happening and chose to ignore it and cover it up. This is an uncomfortable truth.

I welcome the Minister's announcement to establish a commission of investigation. It is the first step towards establishing the full truth about this dark period. We must now coolly and calmly establish, with a strong degree of sensitivity, what exactly went on in the homes. The Minister has indicated the main questions that the commission will consider, namely, how the babies died and why the death rate in the homes was over three times the national average at the time. The poor, innocent children seem never to have stood a real chance at life. There is little evidence of them living and little evidence of them dying. Their existence was hidden away, and that was the wish of society at the time, not just that of the religious hierarchy. The commission must therefore question not only the role of the Church but also that of the State and society as a whole. I am glad to hear the Irish Catholic bishops want the truth to emerge and that they have called for an independent commission of investigation with judicial powers. I hope the religious orders will co-operate. However, while misguided moral suppression of society at the time did warp people's views of what was right and wrong, the Church alone cannot be a scapegoat for this. We must bear in mind the role of society at the time and the fact that many people knew what was happening and went along with it. We must look into our own hearts to determine what sort of society we had and have today. How do we treat our children today? How do we treat our children with disabilities, autism and Down's syndrome? How do we treat our women today? Yesterday, the National Women's Council of Ireland published a report showing that women are 30% more likely to be beaten in circumstances of domestic violence when they are pregnant.

Today's business brings us back to the disturbing question of clinical trials in the homes in question. I refer to children being used as guinea pigs. Such trials were carried out in children's homes in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire. Medical professionals who oversaw the trials have insisted that the vaccines did no harm and were administered in the children's best interest. This is not acceptable today and was not acceptable in the past. It seems that the doctors effectively granted one another permission to proceed. The commission of investigation must investigate these drug trials.

Photo of Michelle MulherinMichelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Irrespective of how far back we look into our history, we will realise it is one of abuse. Politically, socially and religiously, we have only known abuse. This nation was born of a refusal to be abused by the colonial powers. The struggle for a free Ireland was a struggle against abuse and was for and by both men and women. It is not unfair to say this struggle continues even today. Equality in our nation is still a dream for many marginalised individuals and groups. The legacy of abuse takes its toll personally and collectively. As the late author Paulo Freire said in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they [the oppressed] are so that they can more wisely build the future." However, before we can talk about forgiveness, we must be true and open about why and who carried out the abuse. It is essential that we as a people never shy away from the past. When one notes the rawness of the hurt of mothers and children from the homes, as described by some of them in the media recently, one realises the past we now talk about is not long ago at all. Therefore, I welcome the Government's decision to set up expeditiously a commission of investigation with statutory powers.

Not all in the Church abused and not all in the Church were aware of the abuse taking place, yet the Church as a hierarchy must own its sin, as it were. Where the State has colluded, it must take its share of the blame. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, dealt with this issue very well in his statement yesterday. The endeavour now is to address what happened in the context of the past before Ireland became what it is today. It is essential that what happened be seen in the light of what the Irish nation was at the time, with the Church and State intertwined with the will of the people.

The freedom of this nation came about only by expelling the colonial masters. For too long we operated under religious doctrines and allowed religious institutions to be answerable only to the religious hierarchy whose doctrines concerning unmarried mothers and their children were unchristian. Changes to our laws separating church and state, like the mandatory reporting of child abuse, go towards ensuring the past will not continue to rule our present and future. While the abuse and inhumanity perpetrated in secret and suffered by mothers and children in the homes has passed, we know the pain of the trauma still manifests itself because healing is required. The State can provide the vehicle for truth and justice that is required for the victims.

Let me quote the spiritual teacher Iyanla Vanzant: "When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else." As we, as a nation, once again face dark revelations about our past, we do so with sadness. This is something we need to mourn. It is natural to blame and point a finger but, as a nation, we need to do more. We need to find our way past this and find forgiveness and healing. As we hear the stories of the many victims of the homes, we will allow the process of healing, not just for them but for ourselves as a nation.

Photo of Anne FerrisAnne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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I very much welcome the establishment of a commission of investigation. I agree with the concept of the two-step approach proposed by the Minister. Putting time and thought into the creation of broad terms of reference for the inquiry represents an essential preliminary step. It is not possible for the inquiry to examine mother and baby homes in isolation.

These institutions were but pieces in the large jigsaw puzzle known as "religious Ireland".

I wrote an article last year about a Scottish man who, in 1955, talked his way into the Tuam mother and baby home and the Magdalen laundry in Galway. The man was an author, researching a book about Ireland. His name was Dr. Halliday Sutherland and his experience of both visits is related in a chapter of his book, Irish Journey. It is important to say at the outset that Dr. Sutherland was obliged to receive permission for these visits from two bishops, Dr. Walsh, the Archbishop of Tuam, and Dr. Browne, the Bishop of Galway. The evidence is that the Catholic hierarchy was exercising clear control over the two orders of nuns in question. It should also be said that by instruction of the Bishop of Galway, Dr. Sutherland only received permission to visit the Magdalen laundry on agreement that he would submit his written manuscript to the mother superior of the Sisters of Mercy.

It seems quite clear from this experience that the institutions were not autonomous entities and were, in fact, regulated by the religious orders whose names they carried, under the direction of a church hierarchy. This point carries much significance when considered in light of the repeated refusals by church authorities to pay redress moneys owed to victims and survivors of church abuse.

When Dr. Sutherland visited the Tuam mother and baby home, he took note of the partnership-type arrangement that existed between the State and the Bon Secours Sisters in the operation of the home. Each unmarried mother worked at the Tuam home for one year without payment and, in addition, the institution received a grant of £1 per woman or child from Galway County Council every week. Any child not adopted by the age of seven was sent to an industrial school. If a woman was unfortunate enough to have two illegitimate pregnancies, then she was sent to the Magdalen laundry in Galway to work for the Sisters of Mercy.

From just this one independent eyewitness account in 1955, we can identify a maze of interconnecting pieces of this jigsaw. The church hierarchy, the Bon Secours order, adoption societies, Galway County Council, the Galway Magdalen laundry, the Sisters of Mercy order, the industrial schools and the religious orders running the industrial schools were all linked directly to the Tuam mother and baby home. It is impossible, therefore, to inquire into the operation of a mother and baby home or, indeed, all mother and baby homes without considering all the pieces of the full jigsaw puzzle. For this reason, I look forward to further debate in this House on the terms of reference of this inquiry, which needs to be broad and carefully designed. The Minister's idea to scope promptly and carefully the inquiry prior to its establishment is a good one.

Because Dr. Sutherland's 1955 account of his visit to the Tuam mother and baby home and the Galway Magdalen laundry was subject to the prior editorial approval of the mother superior of the Mercy order in Galway, I first wondered, when reading his book, how much the record had been sanitised for public consumption. I no longer have to wonder. Dr. Sutherland's grandson has provided me with a copy of his grandfather's original 21-page manuscript, edited by hand, with a sharp blue-inked fountain pen, by the then mother superior of the Mercy nuns in Galway, Sister Fidelma. The marked manuscript, which has been kept faithfully by the Sutherland family for nigh on 60 years, was attached to a covering letter signed by Sister Fidelma and stamped with her convent seal. The original script, together with Sister Fidelma's edits, tells a shocking story of punishment beatings, food deprivation and attempted escapes from the Magdalen laundry - one with devastating consequences. My intention, with the permission of Dr. Sutherland's grandson, is to hand this document over to the commission of inquiry.

Given the clear links between the Magdalen laundries and the mother and baby homes, in my view, it is simply not possible to contemplate an inquiry into one type of institution without also inquiring into the other type. I look forward to engaging further on the terms of reference of the commission of investigation. The scoping phase must consider the need to investigate the Magdalen laundries, the church hierarchy and all adoptions that occurred where the natural mothers were not independently legally advised, which really means all adoptions carried out under these circumstances. This may be under one inquiry or, perhaps more effectively, under a number of parallel but connected commissions of investigation. The important point is that all of these various aspects of Ireland's social and religious history are, in fact, closely connected and must be openly and thoroughly investigated together.

7:35 pm

Photo of Ciara ConwayCiara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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From listening to the debate both inside and outside the House, it is very clear anger is growing in the country, not just about this but about the terrible things that have happened to women and children down through the ages. Tonight, we are particularly looking at the revelations and news we have heard in regard to mother and baby homes. Young women were forcibly separated first from their communities, then from any sense of pride or self worth and then from their babies. Their babies were neglected and starved, with illnesses untreated. They were seen as worthless and buried, ultimately, in unmarked graves, left in the end without even an identity.

We know that this happened as a manifestation of official policy. Young women were separated and confined in what can only be described as prisons in order to enforce a stigma of shame. They were declared to be unequal and treated accordingly.

We hope we have changed - of course, we do. However, what of the children's referendum that was passed almost two years ago and is still not signed into law? If it was a fiscal referendum, would we still be waiting for it to be signed into law? What of the children in direct provision? Are they to be the next scandal visited upon us? What of the child death inquiries of the children in care, where over 230 children died in State care? Alcohol was seen as one of the top risk factors in all of those cases, yet we fail to regulate and examine the problem this country has with alcohol.

This commission must be the one that puts an end to commissions of inquiry which solely examine, let us be honest, why women were treated as second class citizens because of their biology. By that, I mean the women in the Magdalen laundries, the women who suffered symphysiotomy, the hepatitis C women, Savita and the women in the mother and baby homes. It is shameful that this country has sought, and to this day seeks, to treat women as second class citizens. This commission must be the one to end inquiries into our shameful past. I hope we will be able, in the lifetime of this Government, to shine a light on those very dark and shameful episodes that have happened in the past but also in our very recent past. We must act to protect women and children.

I hope those who have records will come forward and that we will not have people who will withhold evidence. We must have co-operation from all of those engaged in this horrific part of our history. What we are talking about here are very young, poor women and sometimes girls who were treated as unequal, as second class citizens and as prisoners because of their biology. We must make sure this commission seeks not just to investigate the mother and baby homes but also the tangled web this State, the church and society pushed women and children through because they did not want to see what was going on in front of them.

The word "outcast" derives from medieval times. When young girls and women became pregnant and were unmarried, they were asked to leave the village and live outside it because they were a burden and could not be fed or looked after. They often died in the woods because of malnutrition and exposure. That was in medieval times and "outcast" was a medieval term, yet in modern times and in modern terms, women, because of their biology, are treated as second class citizens.

I commend the first steps we have taken as a Government in regard to the establishment of the commission but we must get this right. We must make sure this commission is the commission to end inquiries into why we treat women and have treated women in this country as second class citizens because of their biology.

Photo of Joe O'ReillyJoe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The first point to make is that it is essential we remember the women and babies in the mother and baby homes, apologise to them, acknowledge the enormous suffering and pain they went through and accept it was a very dark chapter in our history.

We must accept that it was born out of misogyny, patriarchy, ignorance, deep prejudice and poverty. We cannot fail to acknowledge all these facets of what happened. We cannot deny that all of us contributed to it, whether it was by making a bar-room joke that led to the prejudice that led to the ignorant reaction, or by any other means. There was mass buy-in, to use an awful contemporary phrase. There was mass acceptance of it. Evil does not occur without a culture and atmosphere to facilitate it. There was prejudice, ignorance and a horrific attitude to the women and babies that gained expression. No element of society can escape it. The State and the people who ran the homes bore responsibility. Every facet of society bore responsibility. It was a dark period in our history. One cannot dress it up or romanticise it. This must be the kernel of anything we say.

A point that has been made that merits being made again is that the privacy of those who lived in the homes and who do not wish to be part of the public debate or media coverage should be respected. Obviously, the commission, whose establishment I welcome, should look at infant mortality, burial arrangements, vaccine trials and practices around adoption. There should be no element of this extraordinarily dark period in our history - this harrowing and very difficult time - that escapes the scrutiny of the commission and is swept under the carpet.

The commission will be able to compel witnesses, to provide for costs where people are not co-operating and to obtain access to all of the information, so it will have strong powers. It is important that this is accepted. It is an efficient and comprehensive way of dealing with what happened. It is the most sensible immediate response. There can be no hiding from any element of this. The interdepartmental work that has been done by way of background will help set the terms of reference and provide a context. It is not inappropriate. It is very appropriate for us to say that every agency in the State, all archives and all the machinery of the State must be opened up and made available to the commission of inquiry.

In that context, we must welcome the statements from the bishops that they will ensure complete co-operation. It should be no other way, but it merits acknowledgement. Obviously, the commission's work will not be confined to Tuam, and I commend the Minister on that, because it must embrace the entire country. There is not much more we can say other than to support the establishment of the commission, acknowledge our collective guilt and ensure that the women, babies and families receive a sensitive response. There must be a holistic response. I support the adoption campaign which said this morning that counselling should be introduced immediately. I believe that should be the case. Of course, a formal State apology should be given. We should do everything that will in any way ameliorate the situation. We are coming into the decade of commemoration, but while we commemorate other aspects of our history, we cannot deny this as a very real part of our history. We must confront it and accept its reality. It has to guide us to deal with the victims but must also guide future policy so that we develop a sensitive, humane policy that will never allow a recurrence of what happened.

7:45 pm

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call on Deputy McDonald, who is sharing time with Deputies Stanley, Tóibín, Adams and Crowe.

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is appropriate to begin my remarks by applauding the women and men who have campaigned for many long years to achieve recognition of what happened in institutions across this country - recognition of the abusive and degrading treatment suffered by women and their children in mother and baby homes, county homes, children's homes, orphanages, Magdalen laundries and beyond. The idea of punishing a woman for her pregnancy is frankly abhorrent. Yet that is what happened in our country. Generations of unmarried pregnant women faced not only isolation, stigmatisation and cruelty but also the ultimate inhumane sanction of having their babies taken from them. It is hard to fathom all of this. I struggle to understand or grasp such an intensely vindictive act as to take a child from its frightened, vulnerable mother. Yet that is what happened in thousands of cases.

Many women who lived through this trauma are still around to tell the tale. Some of them have done so very bravely and publicly. A woman spoke at a gathering in Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in County Tipperary about two weeks ago. I had the honour of being in that gathering. She had her baby in that institution. She left without her baby. She suspects her baby is buried somewhere under the ground where we stood, but she cannot be sure. Her story is sadly echoed in cases the length and breadth of this country. Now is the moment when we face up to that. It was Catherine Corless who painstakingly and faithfully discovered the names of the almost 800 infants and children who died at the Bon Secours institution in Tuam. Catherine Corless, Teresa Killeen-Kelly and their mother and babies committee deserve much credit, as do those campaigners who have worked and fought for recognition. It has been a long road and I want to welcome many of them to the public gallery this evening.

Tuam was not an isolated case. Our motion this evening makes clear that the investigation into events at the Bon Secours institution must be replicated in mother and baby homes and other institutions. It is essential that this commission is not selective in its approach. It would be a glaring contradiction and a profound injustice to include some survivors and exclude others. It would be a farce to pretend that any investigation of women and children in mother and baby institutions could be carried out without including the Magdalen laundries. The McAleese report did not and could not establish the full story of women and children's experiences in the laundries. It could not and did not establish the relationship, the traffic and the interplay between the laundries and the mother and baby homes. It is impossible to get to the bottom of the mother and baby home story without understanding and finally and fully confronting what happened in the laundries. It is therefore essential that the scope of the inquiry includes the Magdalen laundries. I would like the Minister and Government to commit to their inclusion this evening.

It is also essential that institutions that have been ignored or set aside are included. Many of these were Protestant in ethos, such as the Ovoca Manor and Westbank orphanages located in County Wicklow, and the Church of Ireland Magdalen home based in Dublin.

I welcome the fact that finally the Government has recognised the survivors of the Bethany Home. Their inclusion is long overdue. The role of sadness and death in that home in Rathgar is engraved on a memorial stone in Mount Jerome cemetery where just last April the forgotten, lost children of the home were given the dignity of their names at their final resting place. That dignity of recognition and identity and of being named must be afforded to every infant and child that lies in an unmarked plot or grave. Survivors at this stage have made it abundantly clear that they desire memorial stones for all these infants and children and their wish should be respected and accommodated at the earliest opportunity.

Despite protestations to the contrary, this abuse happened in clear view of society. We, undoubtedly, as a society have questions to answer and lessons to learn from our negligence and cruelty, our fear of authority and our compliance with things that, on reflection, none of us would stand over. That such organised systematic abuse happened with the active involvement of the religious and churches is an utter perversion of anything that anyone might reasonably call Christian. Church leaders and religious orders must step forward and measure up to their responsibility, co-operate, apologise and make reparations.

The State alibi until recently has been that these awful abusive events happened in private institutions and somehow, therefore, it was not, and is not, accountable or liable for the violations of women's and children's rights. I am sure the Minister will agree this is patent nonsense. This abuse happened with the clear sanction and connivance of the State and this is the most devastating reality of all. It is important that we establish the full facts of what happened behind institutional walls and gates and of what happened to women and children in these institutions and beyond.

We demand an explanation for the infant and child mortality rates and the vaccine trials and we want answers around the forced illegal adoptions from these institutions. In other words, we want the terms of reference of this inquiry to be comprehensive and we expect Government to honour its commitment to consult the Opposition parties and, above all, the survivors and their advocates. We will not accept from Government any attempt to cherry-pick institutions to be included with others excluded. Victims and survivors, mothers and their babies were grievously wronged by society, the churches and the State. They were deserving of, and entitled to, their human rights and dignity. There are no excuses or alibis and there is nowhere for anyone to hide. They deserve, and they must receive, a full and wholesome apology. None of them was ever, to use the awful phrase, "illegitimate". The State, the churches and society acted illegitimately and broke every rule and boundary of decency, morality and the rule of the law.

The Government has an opportunity because of the courage and perseverance of survivors and campaigners to put things right. The Minister should not throw this opportunity away. The challenge is for Government to match the fierce dignity and courage of those who have stepped forward to demand justice for mothers and their babies. The motion is about the past but, in a profound way, all this is about the here and now. It is about us asserting the kind of Ireland in which we live, the manner in which we value our women and children and the extent to which we are prepared to recognise wrongs and to apologise and own up to them. Time is of the essence. Survivors and victims need recognition, support and redress now. I would like to quote the words of a survivor. He said:

It would be best to come clean now. This problem is partly due to governments in the past selecting who gets justice and who in their eyes does not deserve the truth. The abuse continues until all the homes are included. The issue is not going to go away because the brave souls who survived to testify their experience aren't going away.
A wise Minister and a wise Government would heed these words.

7:55 pm

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the fact that the Government seems to have accepted the spirit of the motion and the need to move as quickly as possible to investigate all aspects of the horrific stories, which have emerged not just recently but over the past decade and a half. The inquiry needs to extend to all cases highlighted in the past and to all cases into which full inquires have not been conducted, despite the appeals of former residents. The inquiry must include the Bethany Home and the disturbing practices that took place there, which were similar to what happened in the Tuam mother and baby home, where a large number of children were buried in unmarked graves.

The death rate in these homes is striking. When one takes into account the death certificates that have been found, the number of children who died in all these homes, including the Bethany Home, is high. At the time the mortality rate for children in the State was high because of disease and various other reasons but mortality rates in the homes were excessive and extraordinary by any standard and this must be examined. The children in these homes died at a much higher rate than those living with their families. It is a scandal that this happened and this must be fully investigated.

The Sean Ross Abbey home in County Tipperary is on the border of my constituency. The home operated under the Sacred Heart Sisters for 40 years until 1970 and it was the subject of the film "Philomena", which focused on forced adoptions from it. The home has a large burial plot, which contains numerous bodies of babies. We do not know how many are in it and it could be hundreds. Yesterday, I was contacted by a constituent who only discovered the other day that he was born in Sean Ross Abbey. He is aged 51 and he is one of the lucky ones who survived. He wants answers. He wants to know why his mother was committed to the home and whether he was the subject of an adoption or whether he was boarded out. He wants a copy of his medical records. He has many questions but there are no answers for him at the moment. We need to know what went on in homes such as Sean Ross Abbey.

Adoption is a particularly sensitive issue, given the comments of mothers who claim they were forced to give up their children for adoption. Many of the children were adopted overseas and this presents a massive legacy issue, which needs to be handled sensitively in order that separated families can find out what happened during the adoption process and in order they can be reunited.

We must also examine the use of children as guinea pigs in vaccine trials, which were not approved. It is a scandal that this happened. How many children died as a result of the trials? Who authorised and monitored them? Who benefited from them?

There has rightly been a significant focus on the religious orders who ran the homes and there is a major responsibility on the surviving members of those orders who have information to come forward. In doing so, however, we must also look at the State's role over a 50 to 60 year period.

The people who have the power, the Ministers in the Cabinet, must do everything they can to try to get answers, particularly for the survivors, many of whom are elderly. Those people and their children are entitled to answers as to what happened. Hopefully the inquiry will focus on these matters and get answers, so we will be able to shed more light on what was a very dark period in our history. We have a responsibility to those people to expose this and ensure they get redress.

8:05 pm

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh cinniúint an Rialtais coimisiún fiosrúcháin a bhunú i ngéarchéim árais mháthair agus linbh agus tá súil agam go gcabhróidh sé seo le céim dearfach a thógáil mar gheall ar chaibidil uafásach dorcha i stair na tíre.

We cannot underestimate the enormity of the challenge of this investigation, but in equal measure we cannot overstate the importance of the truth to the tens of thousands of women who bore and lost their children in these institutions in such cruel circumstances. A total of 796 children died in the Bon Secours home in Tuam between 1925 and 1961. I commend the work of all the individuals who have shed light into these dark corners of our history and who have given these forgotten mothers and babies a voice. We must also remember the 219 Bethany Home children who, until recently, lay in an unmarked grave in Dublin. Despite the wealth of evidence detailing State involvement and oversight in the homes and the barbaric neglect of babies and young children, the Government has yet fully to acknowledge wrongdoing.

Derek Leinster, chairperson of the Bethany Survivors Group described the horrific neglect he experienced following his birth in the institution:

At seven and a half months old I was nursed out to Mrs. Shirley, my head was a mass of puss, blood and scabs. I looked like a ghost. They nursed me back to normal health. I was then taken back to Bethany when I was two and a half years old, to be permanently adopted by another family - that did not happen. There were many children in the Bethany Home who suffered from rickets. I then became very ill and was lucky that they had left enough time to give Cork Street isolation hospital a chance to save my life. I had bronchial pneumonia, diphtheria, pertussis and gastroenteritis.
This is from just one of the individuals from that home who was lucky enough to survive.

There must be no distinction between Catholic, Protestant or State homes in the commission of inquiry. All mother and baby homes must be included, as well as the Magdalen laundries. This commission of investigation is an opportunity, which should be grabbed with both hands, to include all those who have been gravely wronged by institutions of any kind. Tens of thousands of women across the decades lost their children in these homes. They lived in a society in which they had a deeply ingrained stigma that is nearly impossible for us to understand today. In short, they were outlawed by many of our grandparents, and the religious orders were employed to oversee their punishment.

It is of pivotal importance that we investigate the heartbreaking wrongs for a number of reasons, but primarily to bring belated justice to the women and babies involved. There is also a need to get to the truth. In recent weeks there has been a swirl of media reports, most of it shockingly true but some of it wide of the mark.

There must also be an investigation to ensure that we learn from our past. Shockingly this State still mistreats mothers and children. I refer in particular to direct provision. Nutrition there is an ongoing issue, particularly for children. The Irish Refugee Council has reported cases of the HSE offering to take children into care, or partial care, in cases of severe malnourishment instead of simply ensuring that parents have enough to feed their children properly. Residents are literally imprisoned in direct provision for years. I have met adults who have spent their formative years in direct provision and on completion of their leaving certificate are prevented from working, attending college and much else. They are unable to escape.

In this decade, one child in the HSE system dies every fortnight, 513 children went missing while in State care between 2000 and 2010 and the whereabouts of 440 children are unknown. Only recently we saw the disgraceful debacle of the Government, in practical terms, taking medical care from children with life-long illnesses or disabilities through the medical card review.

We owe it to the families who are torn apart by the mother and child homes to uncover the wrongs, and we owe it to the mothers and children of this generation not to repeat them.

Photo of Gerry AdamsGerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Deireann an dán:

Mise Éire,

Sine mé ná an Chailleach Bhéara

Mór mo ghlóir:

Mé a rug Cú Chulainn cróga

Mór mo náir:

Mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair.
Mór mo náire anocht, a Aire, ag éisteacht le daoine anseo ag labhairt os comhair na ndaoine thuas in Áiléar na gCuairteoirí. Bhí cruinniú mór daoine lasmuigh agus iad ag abair amhrán agus ag tabhairt saghas solidarity dár gcáirde.

Sinn Féin welcomes the Government's decision to establish a commission of investigation and its commitment to engage with the Opposition. We will hold the Government to this commitment. I do not say this from any sense of moral superiority. This is our responsibility. We also believe that survivors should be consulted on the terms of reference. Given the age of the survivors, many of whom are infirm, counselling and redress schemes should be put in place as quickly as possible. We believe the terms of reference must cover the effective imprisonment of pregnant women in mother and baby homes; the taking of babies from their mothers against their will; the cause of the shocking infant mortality rates at mother and baby homes; the circumstances surrounding the burial of children and babies who died at these homes; the routine illegal adoption and trafficking to the USA and elsewhere of an unknown number of children; and the subjection of children to medical trials without the consent of their mothers. We believe the commission should be established before the summer recess.

We welcome the commitment yesterday that Bethany Home is belatedly included in the commission of investigation. However, other institutions, such as the Magdalen laundries, should also be included. I commend the efforts of Catherine Corless, the Adoption Rights Alliance, other activists and especially the survivors who have worked to expose the injustice of these homes. We would not be having this debate and there would be no commission of investigation if it were not for the work of the survivors and their friends.

Women were denied their rights as citizens and they were treated as slaves. Children who did not die were left scarred for the rest of their lives. Some were treated as guinea pigs in vaccine experiments. Who gave permission for these actions to be carried out? Who authorised the use of Irish children for vaccine trials? Who was paid? How much did successive Governments know? When did this Government know of this dreadful scandal?

For many citizens there is genuine bewilderment at the scale of the abuse, the numbers who died and their treatment after death. For some commentators, the responsibility and blame for this is being laid at the door of society. I have been trying to understand this. In this version of events everybody is to blame and everybody is at fault. However, everybody is not to blame. The victims are not to blame. It is as if the virtual imprisonment of unmarried girls and women and the theft of their children were a natural outworking of Irish society in that period of our history. However, that is too simplistic a picture. It seeks benignly or inadvertently to excuse the decisions that were taken by the elites in the State and church. As Deputy Ó Caoláin told the Dáil yesterday, this can be too easily twisted into a view that since everyone was to blame, nobody was to blame. That is not good enough.

It is a fact that after Partition a conservative, mean spirited, narrow-minded political and business elite in this State, in alliance with the Catholic Church hierarchy, put in place laws, institutions and censorship restrictions which were anti-women, chauvinistic, cruel, prejudiced, intolerant and anti-working class. The thousands of women who endured unbelievable hardship were denied everything by the State. The agencies and institutions of the State are to blame.

These unmarried women broke no laws and the commission of investigation must reveal the truth of that experience and those responsible for it. The victims of this abuse should feel no shame. I make the point again, "You did no wrong." At a vigil outside Leinster House there was a celebration in solidarity of song, music and poetry. One speaker said, "The victims need validation." That is the very least we can give them, with our love, respect and thanks for their strength and courage.

8:15 pm

Photo of Seán CroweSeán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The story of Tuam's mother and baby home is appalling and horrific and its scale mind-numbing. It is difficult to read and even harder to understand. Can we truly say what happened is surprising? In 2002, when I came into the Dáil, there had been calls to investigate the horrific crimes committed in residential institutions. The focus was narrow. We had a partial apology from the Taoiseach at the time and established the redress board, the structures of which compounded the hurt, according to many of the victims. The State apologised to a certain section, but many groups were left out. From the first investigations and State apologies which cruelly left out the likes of the Magdalen laundries to the imperfect and selective McAleese inquiry which left out the likes of Bethany Home and others, we have seen the State continue to fail the tragic victims and survivors of various institutions. We failed them collectively once by leaving them out and we have continued to fail them to this day by denying them justice.

These appalling events did not happen in the dark distant past. Pregnant women were still being sent to the Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes right up to the 1980s. Westbank in Greystones only closed in 2002. It is clear that gender, class and power were all at play. If a citizen was female, poor, lacked an education or had the audacity to challenge the religious ethos of the time which dominated the health and education systems, she was isolated and marginalised. Some were locked up, treated and used as prisoners and economic slaves. Women citizens were treated as a subspecies which was impure, tainted and even dangerous. The men who got many of these women pregnant did not lose their positions or standing in Irish society.

Women's children were starved and disease, including TB, was rampant. The child mortality rate was massively higher in these institutions than among the general public and the State allowed this to go on. Many babies born in these institutions were immediately taken from their mothers and put up for forced and illegal adoption as quickly as possible. Many of the survivors do not know what homes they were in. Can we apologise to them, even though they do not know from which institutions they came? Will we look at the possibility of including them? There are people who have a difficulty in obtaining passports and realise they were living under the wrong name through no fault of their own. We heard that children were treated as guinea pigs and used without consent in vaccine trials. Women and their children were ignored, abused and shunned in life and hidden away in death.

We must deal with this dark and difficult issue once and for all. No home or group should be left out of any inquiry and full powers must be provided for investigating authorities to ensure justice is done. We must learn from the past. With all of these inquiries and investigations, can we learn and improve? Can we do things differently? Can we be more inclusive? Will we continue to prolong the hurt experienced by the people concerned? We have a chance to be inclusive or exclusive. We have been exclusive in the past. Surely, it is time to include all homes in this process and that is what I urge the Government to do. The motion suggests the way forward. Surely, we can all work together to make this better. Perhaps, we might try to do things differently in the future. We have certainly done things in the wrong way in the past. There is an opportunity for us to do things differently collectively. I urge the Government to look clearly at what we are suggesting. Those who were hurt are the heroes. No one is here to sensationalise or make insensitive remarks, but it will be insensitive and wrong if we fail to include people who have been hurt.

Photo of Ciarán CannonCiarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies who have contributed to the debate. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, and I appreciate the co-operation that has been given by the House on this very sensitive matter. These sensitivities are foremost in the minds of Members who are deeply aware that there are people in Ireland who continue to live with the reality of the issues discussed. There is a need to be mindful of their circumstances and ensure public commentary does not add to any distress they might feel.

We have noted the contributions of all Deputies and the issues they have highlighted which have been brought into the public domain by the events in Tuam. I am sure that all in the House will agree that the many issues raised are problematic and deeply troubling. I emphasise the Government's commitment to getting this right. Deputy Robert Troy stated last night that there was never a right time to do the wrong thing. The Government is convinced that this is the time to do the right thing by the women and children whose lives were shaped by the events that took place in the last century in Ireland's mother and baby homes. However, we must be realistic in our approach. There is a need to establish the facts. It must be borne in mind that they may be hard to unearth and deeply unpalatable for many.

I am pleased that the debate of the last two days in the Chamber has shed light on the level of complicity of all strands of Irish life in what was happening in mother and baby homes and the degree to which society turned a blind eye and allowed others to deal with issues it had simply decided to ignore. I ask those who have survived time in these institutions to be aware of the national contact preference register operated by the Adoption Authority. There, in the strictest confidence and with the utmost sympathy, efforts can be made to address the issue of giving an identity to the many children affected by their births in mother and baby homes.

As he stated last night, the Minister intends to drive this process forward and ensure the commission of investigation will get under way in a timely manner. The appropriate terms of reference and a suitable expert membership will be developed for the commission of investigation. In developing the terms of reference consideration will be given by the interdepartmental group, in the first instance, to all of the matters to which Deputies have referred, including the institutions to be included in the review, infant mortality rates, the links between mother and baby homes and other institutions, adoptions from these facilities, illegal registrations, informal care arrangements such as boarding out, vaccines and medical issues, forced labour, institutional abuse, children being sent to the United States of America, the need for the living history of those affected by this issue to be acknowledged and recorded and the need for a proper resting place and memorial for those children who died in mother and baby homes. The group will consider all of these issues when making recommendations to the Government.

I again thank all Deputies who have approached the matter with the utmost sensitivity and understanding and look forward to continuing engagement across the House in finalising arrangements for the commission of investigation.

9 o’clock

This Government is doing the right thing in trying to establish the truth of a dark chapter in our history and, in doing so, honouring the memory of those who are no longer with us and offering solace and support to those who are.

8:25 pm

Photo of Martin FerrisMartin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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It is a cliché to say that a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable but it is true. God knows but we have many reasons to come up wanting in that judgment, not just in the past but today, when sick people have to fight, beg and shout to get help. There is a lot of talk about the times that were in it then, when women who were pregnant outside the strict rules of Irish society were treated as outcasts, often rejected by their families and hidden away like some dirty secret. It is this aspect of this sorry episode of our history that I wish to address - the secrets that are kept in archives, files and records all over the State. There is a need for a full inquiry into what happened. We might hope in our hearts that there are no more horrors to be revealed and that a proper inquiry will stop the drip feed of suffering and pain that has poured out of our history of the treatment of women and children in Ireland.

Let us start any inquiry with the records that exist. They must be released by all and every organisation, State body or religious order that holds them. If they are not already under the auspices of the National Archives of Ireland and if there is legislation, regulation, by-law or whatever is needed, then let us do it without delay. Catriona Crowe, head of special projects at the National Archives of Ireland, is on record as saying that she knows that the files of the biggest mother and baby home in the country, St. Patrick's on the Navan Road in Dublin, are in the possession of the HSE. That could mean that old health board files all over the State contain the records of these mother and baby homes. Two religious orders ran these homes, as far as I am aware - the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They must have records, not only of the admissions, births and deaths that happened under their supervision. Did they hand their records over to the health boards, or have they still got them in their possession? If they have them, what do they record about the women and babies who were in their institutions? Do they need work to get them into chronological order and what details do they contain? There must also be record of the administrative relationship between these orders of nuns and the State. There must be financial accounts. Did the religious orders get paid by the State for running these places? Are there records of payments from the pharmaceutical companies who carried out medical trials on children in these homes? Have the companies got the results of their medical trials recorded? What of the dioceses in which these homes existed? Are there records of the orders' relationships with their religious mentors and bishops?

The General Register Office, GRO, should hold all the records of births and deaths. This is where Catherine Corless, to whom this State owes a debt for her work to date, found the death certificates of the Tuam babies. She paid for them out of her pocket and should be congratulated for her dedication and commitment to the work she has revealed to us. The GRO should be asked to hand over what it has, without waiting for an inquiry to ask for it and every Catholic and Protestant diocese in Ireland should be asked to do the same. If what we already know is anything to go by, we will be horrified all over again by what these records reveal but I ask for the files to be opened and to let it all come out now, once and for all, because that is the only way to deal with the tragedy that it is.

That said, I am aware of the living women who were victims of such a system and who were wrongly terrified into silence for years. Women out there are still not able to tell their loved ones about lost babies, dead babies or babies sold off to adoption boards. They are victims of the society that made them feel that a normal, healthy sex life was a crime and one so serious that they deserved any pain and suffering that came after. The pain they felt most was the taking of their babies but, for some of them, that pain continues because the lie was told so long ago and the secret kept for so long that to reveal them now would damage precious relationships made after the birth and loss of their first babies. These women should be reassured at the setting up of any inquiry that they will not be exposed against their will and that discretion and their right to confidentiality will be maintained. Hopefully, for some of them, that secret can at last be revealed and they will get the help they need to talk about their experiences in a way that will bring healing and not further suffering to their lives.

This motion is tabled in the knowledge that this country needs to deal with the past. We cannot move forward unless we do. I urge all Members to support the motion. I hope that what has been exposed over the past weeks and years will purify a rotten system that existed between the leadership of the church and the State in this country. It destroyed the lives of many.

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le gach Teachta a ghlac páirt sa diospoireacht seo. Ta súil agam go dtiocfaidh toradh maith as, ach go háirithe dóibh siúd a d'fhulaing sna hinstitiúdí thar blianta fada. I thank all the Deputies who participated in this debate. It was essential that we address these matters promptly and fully in the Dáil and that is why Sinn Féin used its Private Members' time to have the motion debated. I join colleagues in welcoming our special guests in the Visitors Gallery. They are very welcome.

Yesterday, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, announced that the Cabinet had agreed to the establishment of a commission of investigation. We welcome that. It is regrettable that the Minister was not able to stay to the end of the debate and I hope he will return. It is essential now that we set the proper and appropriate terms of reference for the commission of investigation. Its scope needs to be wide enough to cover all the key issues in the scandal of mother and baby homes. At the same time, the terms of reference need to be clear and comprehensive, while making possible a timely conclusion to the work of the investigation.

The commission of investigation must not focus only on the Bon Secours institution in Tuam but on all such mother and baby homes and similar institutions that existed in the State in that era. It is essential there is a full examination of the regimes in those institutions and I will not, from this point forward, refer to them as homes. This must include the manner in which the women were treated - their accommodation, their food, their medical care or lack of it, and the work the women were required to do. It must include also the manner in which the children were treated. It must find out why the infant and child mortality rates were so high in these homes because they were extraordinarily high at a time of high, but gradually falling, infant mortality rates in Irish society generally.

The commission of investigation must investigate the extent of neglect of the children, especially in terms of malnourishment for which there are many indications. It must address the appalling practice of experimentation with vaccines on these children. To what extent were the children used as guinea pigs and to what extent were pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals involved? A key question is the relationship between these institutions and the relevant State authorities of the time. What was the financial relationship and to what extent do records of this relationship still exist? Did religious orders continue to receive payments from the State for deceased children? What of institutions directly under the aegis of the State, through the health boards or their predecessors?

It is important that the Bethany Home is included in this investigation. We addressed that scandal by way of Dáil debate previously and the survivors still do not have the means of finding out the full truth, which they are seeking.

Adoption practices were central to the operation of these places. It is impossible to envisage any comprehensive investigation which does not thoroughly investigate the issue of adoptions - forced, unauthorised and illegal.

Much of the great reservoir of hurt that still remains is among those surviving mothers whose babies were taken from them against their will and without their consent. None of us can imagine the lifelong grief of a woman whose child has been taken from her so cruelly and who has lived with the knowledge that the child is probably alive, but separated from her by an impenetrable wall. Or, just as cruelly, that the child may have died without ever knowing his or her birth mother.

There is the great hurt also of surviving children who have been denied information about their parents, siblings and wider family. The burial practices in these institutions obviously must be central to the work of the commission of investigation. How many children were buried without coffins in unmarked graves? Can all these graves, or most of them, be located and marked? Can the identities of those children be established and their families traced and informed? There is also the scandal of the use of the bodies of dead children from mother and baby institutions for medical research, again, without the consent of their mothers. This too must be examined in the course of the investigation.

In setting the terms of reference, there must be full and honest consultation with all views in this House, particularly with the representative groups and the individuals directly concerned, above all the surviving mothers from these institutions and the children born in or adopted from them. I want to pay special tribute to them for speaking out and seeking the truth and I want to assure them that we all want to see them vindicated. There needs to be a timetable for the commission of investigation and the possible reporting on the different issues on a phased but time-limited basis merits consideration. Above all there should be no ambiguity about the type of commission of investigation being set up.

It must be a statutory commission of investigation, under the Commission of Investigations Act 2004, with the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and to compel the production of documents. Nothing else will do.

8:35 pm

Photo of Charles FlanaganCharles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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We said that last night. The Deputy knows that to be the case. He was not listening.

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I will come to that in a moment. Bear with me. One thing is for sure, the Minister has not been listening to me, because he left the Chamber before I got up to speak.

While such a commission was signalled in the Minister's statement yesterday, we are concerned that his amendment to our motion does not state this in explicit terms. As he knows well, I have tried repeatedly over the past 36 hours to reach an agreement with him on the wording of the motion or counter motion that will be put before the Members this evening. The Minister's counter motion or amendment is flawed. It does not deliver the certainty the victims of these institutions deserve. It does not reflect the commitments he gave in his oral contribution yesterday or to which he referred in the past few moments. That is a concern for me and for others listening to this debate.

That said, as I have indicated to the Minister repeatedly, we do not want to divide the Dáil on this issue this evening. Therefore, on behalf of Sinn Féin, I am indicating to the Minister, in the spirit I believe is required as we go forward with these matters, that we will not oppose the Government amendment. Instead, we will work on the basis of trust, not only in what the Minister has committed to, but more especially in what the Taoiseach committed to here yesterday and what other voices, including the Minister's colleague tonight, committed to in the course of this debate. We believe that is the way to proceed.

That said, let it be noted clearly and carefully that we and all who truly want truth and justice for the victims and survivors of these hellish institutions will be watching and waiting and holding the Minister and the Government to their commitment to act as they have stated here repeatedly over the two days of these statements and debate. I believe we have collectively made progress this week towards finding the truth and I hope I will have no reason to revisit that view in the future. The former residents of these horrendous institutions, those still living and those who died in them or after leaving them deserve nothing less. Let us all ensure they are let down no more.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.20 p.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 12 June 2014.