Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. It is appropriate that this House discuss this matter, given that it was first raised in the Oireachtas here. I commend the Minister on the detailed and careful way in which he and his officials have framed the draft order. While there was some impatience to get it, in order to draft workable parameters for any commission of investigation, precision is paramount. The purpose of a commission of investigation is to investigate matters of considerable public concern. This is just one of those. However, while the commission is absolutely independent in how it goes about its work, it is essential that the exact matter of public concern is clearly outlined. While, given the scope of the task, the commission will take some time to come to a conclusion, it cannot be left to meander endlessly for a decade. We cannot have another never-ending tribunal of inquiry. The balance has been well struck in this instance between defining the exact matter to be investigated while leaving the commission enormous discretion.

I acknowledge the tireless work of Catherine Corless, without whom we would not be here today. Too often we, as a society, have wished to turn a blind eye to the sins of the past. There are people who would prefer this matter not to be investigated and for the past to remain just that. We cannot understand our today without acknowledging our yesterday. We will never get to that position without knowing exactly what happened in these homes and the reasons for it.

When Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness addressed us in June of last year, she referenced an article by Father Vincent Twomey, former professor of theology in Maynooth. In that article, he said that our experiences of that time were of the Victorian variety when to be "respectable" was everything. The judge alluded to the fact that this puritan form of religiosity found favour in Ireland at the time with both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. It led to great cruelty as previous investigations have revealed. Whatever the reason for it, we, as a nation, totally failed our single mothers and their children in these homes. The Minister was right to hear for himself, from the people affected, the stories of their experiences and how it affected their lives. Such first-hand retelling contributed in no small way to the Minister's drafting of the order before us. They are to be commended for their courage in coming forward.

In that light, I am glad to see the inclusion of historian Professor Mary Daly on the commission. The reputation of Judge Yvonne Murphy is beyond reproach and I am especially pleased she agreed to chair the commission. We can expect a thorough, exacting and rigorous report at the commission's end. The addition of a segment in the investigation into potential illegal adoptions is also crucially important. As the Minister noted in the Dáil, the entry and exit mechanism in these institutions forms a very important part of the entire question. It is quite probable that what are sometimes termed "forced adoptions" occurred, even after the introduction of the Adoption Act. This needs thorough investigation. I have a fear, however, that while we may well discover that it happened, there will be a lack of records due to the passage of time and the concealed nature of the operation itself. I hope Iam wrong. I would love us, as a State, to reach out to those babies, now adults, who were sent abroad, perhaps without their mothers' consent, and welcome them as citizens of our now truthful republic.

In conclusion, I again welcome this draft order. It strikes the right balance between the need for speed and efficiency and the need for a thorough investigation. Let us hope it shines a light into dark corners and let us hope that after what I think will be a harrowing report, it makes us a better, kinder and more compassionate society.