James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I have spoken before about the importance of providing some kind of memorial or monument to the victims and survivors of abuse in industrial schools. Many of these schools opened in the late 1800s at a time when Ireland was coming out of the traumatic event of the Famine. They operated for almost one hundred years until the 1960s, 1970s and even the 1980s in some cases.

I raised this matter previously with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. At that time I referred to the report of the commission of inquiry into child abuse and in particular chapter eight which dealt with Letterfrack. It stated that corporal punishment was severe, excessive, pervasive and created a climate of fear. That situation existed in many of these industrial schools where young children were frightened out of their wits. Revelations are still coming out in the inquiry currently being held in the North. I paid a visit to Letterfrack - a bleak place - in order to pay my respects to the many thousands of people who had passed through the gates. There was not so much as a signpost or a memorial plaque in the place to tell the visitor what had happened in this place. The home that housed the brothers who were the perpetrators of the abuse was being used as a hostel and it took a great deal of digging and looking around to find the little graveyard which is hidden by a grove of trees up at the back and which held many children who died in care.

I was amazed that these horrors and memories seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. It seems to me that not much has happened since my visit. These places were located throughout the length and breadth of the country, from Glin in County Limerick to Grangegorman, from Cashel to Ballaghadereen. There were approximately 130 of these places.

We cannot even begin to understand the psychological scars left by clerical abuse on families and many members of the community. When I was working in London I met Irish men and lads who were homeless and the common thread between them was that they had come from these institutions. For example, a man who was abused as a child wanders around in my own village and he is still trying to come to terms with what happened to him.

I refer to the reports about clerical abuse, the Ryan report and the report into abuse in Cloyne. The psychological scars take a lot of healing. The last time I raised this matter in the Chamber the late Christine Buckley was in the Visitors Gallery. I salute her bravery in speaking about the abuse she suffered as a child in Goldenbridge. That took tremendous courage on her part. It took Christine Buckley 15 years of therapy and counselling to be in a position to speak. There are many individuals and families who are still going through that trauma and suffering. I am aware that planning permission for a proposed memorial in Parnell Square has been refused. I suggested to the Minister that places under the control of the VEC such as the former industrial school in Letterfrack should be opened up to allow for a lasting memorial to be created where people can go and see what went on. I am sure the Minister of State will welcome the €10 million provided by the Catholic Church for the Nano Nagle centre. While celebrating a fantastic woman who is to become a saint, the church should really be looking into commemorating the darker side of what happened rather than shying away from it. Memorials will be a means of helping the healing process and allow people to move on.