Imelda Henry (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, on his appointment to the Cabinet. I am aware that he worked on children's issues in the past when he was in opposition. I am delighted that he has been appointed as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. I commend him on his decision to establish a full commission of investigation with full statutory powers. He acted promptly and swiftly when he set up a cross-departmental group involving eight Government Departments. Following a preliminary update from this group, the Cabinet agreed yesterday to establish a commission of investigation with statutory powers to investigate mother and baby homes. The commission will deal with issues of highest sensitivity, matters of life and death, the high mortality rate, the burial practices, the issues relating to adoption and the issue of clinical trials.
As the Minister said, this country has a history of tribunals that go on for years and cost millions of euro. He has assured us that this will be a focused investigation with clear terms of reference and realistically achievable goals. The sole focus here is on the mother and baby home investigation. A reasonable time frame has been set.

The Government's decision to establish a commission of investigation underlines the seriousness of our approach to these matters. As the Minister said, since coming into power, the Government has shown its willingness to confront and shine a light into the dark aspects of our recent social history. State and church were responsible for the mismanagement and neglect of these mothers and their babies. While it is difficult to understand how it was allowed to happen, it was due to the attitude of society at the time to the women and their babies. We cannot forget the fathers who were responsible for the women and their babies. Although they are seldom mentioned they, like all fathers, have responsibility.

Many issues are not clear as of yet, particularly regarding consent for adoption and experiments, and if consent was given it was done while women were stressed, emotional, under pressure from parents, church and society, and made to feel ashamed of their situation and their children. Some of the language used to describe these mothers was appalling. The term "fallen women" is upsetting and sad. I hope many women who had experiences in mother and baby homes will come forward and tell their stories so we can finally bring the harrowing facts into the open. Although it will be difficult for many of them, I hope they have the courage to do so.

We cannot deal with what happened and move forward until we return to those dark days, bring it all into the open and acknowledge that it was wrong and shameful and that we treated women, children and precious human life appallingly. While there has been much analysis of the cause of the problem, the root of it was the attitude of society and the Roman Catholic Church to women and their role in society. Although the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church has moved on a bit, it has not yet moved into the 21st century. Although women constitute over 50% of the world population, they still have no role to play in the Roman Catholic Church. If women had such a role, the church could move forward and renew itself. This is an issue of our dark past and I hope the investigation will give us the answers we need.