Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I welcome the announcement of the establishment of a commission of investigation to examine what happened in the mother and baby homes. It is important for us finally to uncover the whole truth about what went on in those institutions, the circumstances in which women were sent to them, the conditions in which they and their children had to live, the high mortality rates, the medical research that was carried out on children without their parents' consent and the forced separation of mothers and babies through adoption. It is essential for the commission of investigation to consider the role of all bodies - the orders that ran the homes, the State agencies that interacted with them, the Department of the Environment and the local authorities that funded them. We have to recall that these homes were set up at the instigation of the local authorities, which wanted people to be moved from the county homes into separate mother and baby institutions. The roles of all the players involved need to be investigated. We need to uncover the full truth.
I echo the Minister's closing remarks about the importance of justice finally being offered to those affected by this issue. This horrible and dark aspect of our past is part of the daily existence of the many people who went through these homes. The mothers who were forced into the homes and separated from their children have been living with that hurt since then. The children who have never had the opportunity to track down their parents are living with the agony of separation and the denial of basic aspects of their identity. It is important for the Government's response to these issues to be wide and comprehensive. It is not just about realising the truth; it is also about finally doing justice to all of those separated by adoption.
It is right that there has been a significant focus on illegal adoption in recent days. There has been a particular focus on cases of illegal birth registration and on the practices that were followed when children were born. The general practitioners, solicitors and others who falsified birth records thereby deprived children of their identity from the day of their birth. To this day, the State has refused to assist those whose rights were signed over by people who pretended they had been born to another family. I have been looking back on the replies given by Governments in the other House when the issue of illegal adoptions has been raised. Ministers have tended to say it is a private matter.
The State needs to do everything it can to assist these people. That is what finally needs to happen. The State should bring together all the records from the offices of general practitioners and solicitors. Nurse Doody's record book, which listed 1,000 babies and their birth families, was found by her grandson in the attic of a house ten years ago. I understand it is the only record of the truth of those babies and their circumstances, such as the details of their natural mothers. There are records like that all over the country. It is important for the Government to act now to seize all of that information, bring it together and make it available to families. It should also act to ensure all information relating to adoption - I refer to illegal birth registrations, for example - is centralised.
Reference is often made to illegal adoptions. I would widen it out in the way that has been argued by the Adoption Rights Alliance. It is not just about illegal birth registration, which may have been the most straightforward form of illegal adoption that took place in the past; it is also about the many cases of women being forced under duress to give up their babies and to sign consent forms. The Adoption Rights Alliance has examples of many cases of women who signed forms before the legal limit, as set out in legislation, had been reached. Some women were forced to sign forms within three or four days of giving birth. These forms were put in front of them when they were still in shock and did not know what was going on. In those circumstances, it is an absolute fallacy to say that there was anything that could come close to amounting to consent.
The former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, recognised this fallacy when she apologised for illegal adoptions in that country:

We say sorry to you, the mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent. You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.

She acknowledged that in Australia's history - the same thing applies in Ireland - adoption was not a free process for many, if not most, of the women who lived through those periods. Huge pressure was put on people. The law was routinely broken in relation to having proper consent. It is important to get the bottom of all of that and ensure adopted people are finally given the right to information. The State needs to assist in that process in any way possible. It is essential that a right to information finally be introduced. Adopted people in other countries across Europe have enjoyed that right for decades. We still do not have it here. As an adopted person, I was lucky to find my mother after 28 years. The vast majority of adopted people have not been that lucky in the absence of a right to information.
I understand the Taoiseach said today that a referendum will be required. Dr. Conor O'Mahony, a constitutional lawyer who works in UCC, disputed that straight away. I would dispute it too. I have read the case - I O'T v. B - that is being referred to. This Government, like its predecessor, has taken a very conservative reading of that case. I ask the Minister not only to take advice from the Attorney General but also to establish an expert panel, as was done when the abortion legislation was being considered, bringing together legal experts and experts on adoption and the right to information from other countries to advise on setting up a process to make recommendations on taking this issue forward.
As I have said, this is an important issue for thousands of mothers and children throughout Ireland who have been separated through illegal adoptions and other forms of adoption. It is hard to explain to anybody who is not affected by this issue what it is like not to know the basics of who one is, where one came from, where one's mother is, whether she is okay, whether she is happy and how her life has turned out. Everybody else takes these basic things for granted. I think this issue has been denied for too long. I hope the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, is the Minister who will finally so something about it.