James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The motion reads:

That Seanad Éireann:- having regard to the motion passed by Dáil Éireann on 11th June 2014 which recognised the need to establish the facts regarding the deaths of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co. Galway between 1925 and 1961, including arrangements for the burial of these children, and which further acknowledged the considerable public anxiety as to the conditions generally in mother and baby homes operational in the State in that era;
- noting that it is the opinion of the Government that these matters of significant public concern require, in the public interest, examination by the establishment of a Commission of Investigation;
- noting that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has led the Government’s consideration of these sensitive matters;
- noting the factual information compiled, and the specific matters identified for further consideration, in the Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on Mother and Baby Homes, which was laid before Seanad Éireann on 16th July 2014, and which has assisted to inform Government considerations on the scope, format and terms of reference for a Commission of Investigation;
- and further noting that a draft Order proposed to be made by the Government under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23 of 2004) has been duly laid before Seanad Éireann on 16th January 2015 in respect of the foregoing matters referred to, together with a statement of reasons for establishing a Commission under that Act,approves the draft Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters) Order, 2015 and the statement of reasons for establishing a Commission of Investigation.

I welcome the opportunity to bring this motion to the Upper House. Most important, I begin by acknowledging the Irish women and children who were in mother and baby homes in this country in the last century. As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I believe that by setting up the commission with all the necessary powers to get the information required we will come to a greater understanding of how we as a society failed in our treatment of vulnerable women and children. Almost 100 years since the foundation of the Irish State it is essential that we do not shy away from our past. As well as our continued focus on the protection and welfare of children, and equality and respect for all women, we must seek to bring transparency and openness to the actions of the past.

Last May people in Ireland and around the world were shocked at media reports of what was described as a mass grave in the mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway. The sense of indignation we all felt at this was palpable. While some academics had examined these matters, as a State we had failed to come to terms with a harrowing reality in our past, namely, the manner in which women and children were treated in mother and baby homes.

I came into this office last July shortly after Dáil Éireann passed a motion on the need to establish the facts regarding the deaths of children at the Bons Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway, and the subsequent publication of the report of the interdepartmental group on mother and baby homes. As an immediate priority I was concerned to meet as many as possible of the groups which had expressed views on the need for a full exploration of all the issues raised by the discoveries in Tuam.

I appreciate the willingness and courage of those who shared individual accounts of their deeply personal experiences with me. On my own behalf and that of the Government, I thank them for taking the time to meet with me. Other advocacy groups, public bodies and political colleagues across the spectrum also provided me with a wide range of views. The Government agreed the processes to establish a commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and certain related matters. The following day I published a draft order which, subject to minor amendment, is now before the House in the presence of former residents of some of these homes and their representative groups. All the groups I met agreed that making this a feasible task, which can be completed in a realistic timeframe, is critical. Given the complexity and sensitivity of the issues raised with me this has been a challenge.

The terms of reference have been developed with regard to the requirements of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004. It is important to emphasise that the order must be read in conjunction with this Act. The Act is the backdrop to the commission’s work, its general functions, powers, procedures and protections are laid down in this enabling legislation.

When this debate began the issues appeared narrow initially, the high rates of mortality and the burial arrangements in the Bons Secours home in Tuam. As our work progressed, a further set of issues arose about the whole phenomenon of mother and baby institutions in Ireland as a response to the issue of crisis pregnancies over a much longer period of time. It became very clear to me that the issue of entry and exit pathways of women and children raised further questions regarding the social, political and legal environment that prevailed and how that evolved over time. Further, the links between mother and baby homes and the issue of adoption, before and after the introduction of legal adoption in Ireland, were highlighted. As is clear this is a much wider agenda than our starting point. Today I am pleased to bring to the House the draft order and statement of reasons for establishing a commission of investigation. I believe that the terms of reference which are included as a schedule in the order reflect the range of matters we were asked to consider and are a fair and balanced response to the many requests for issues and items to be included.

For the purposes of this motion, I propose to focus on the principal objectives of the order and, in particular, some key provisions within the terms of reference. The draft order contains a number of preliminary recitals and four main provisions. The recitals provide details of the statutory powers and associated procedures under which the commission will be established by Government.

Articles 1 to 3 provide for the Short Title; define the relevant enabling legislation; establish the commission, and task it with investigating and reporting on matters which Government considers to be of significant public concern. This is the threshold for establishing a statutory commission.

Article 4 designates the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs as being responsible for overseeing administrative matters relating to the establishment of the commission. I will receive its reports and discharge related functions under the Act. In addition, the order authorises me to appoint members of the commission.

The terms of reference are focused on a combination of four distinct factors: clarifying that the intended focus is on women and children being accommodated for the purpose of receiving extended and supervised maternity and infant care services in mother and baby homes; defining the issues of public concern as discrete matters to be investigated; specifying a list of mother and baby homes and, in addition, providing for examination of equivalent experiences within the network of county homes; and defining the relevant period as being from 1922 to 1998.

The approach taken provides a clear and deliberate emphasis on the experiences of women and children who spent time in mother and baby homes. Practices in these homes have not featured prominently in the reviews and investigations to date, which have examined past abuses inflicted on vulnerable citizens - many of them women and children. Accordingly, the terms of reference focus on institutions that can clearly be identified as having both the primary function of providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to mothers and their children, which included both board and lodgings, and an ethos that those running the institutions considered to promote a regime of work, training or education as part of an overall approach to either rehabilitating mothers before they left the institution or to give them training for living independently. In many cases, and as established in the academic literature, institutional approaches were based on a moralistic approach intended to rehabilitate mothers and to make arrangements regarding the future care of the children.

On the basis of the available information, I am satisfied that the 14 institutions included in the appendix to Schedule 1 of the draft order meet these criteria. The draft order defines single women as pregnant girls or women and mothers who were not married, as the phenomenon of mother and baby homes was to address the needs of unmarried women who became pregnant. I am aware that a small number of women, who were widowed or who were married but no longer living with their husbands, may also have spent time in these homes in order to receive sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal care. There is no suggestion the treatment experienced by these women differed in any material way from that of women who had not married. I am satisfied that the terms of reference allow the commission to fully investigate these experiences and to make any findings and recommendations it feels warranted with regard to this group of women. However, for the avoidance of any doubt, I am making a small amendment to the definition of single women to explicitly include widows and married women living separately from their husbands.