Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Senator Mark Daly, a well known feminist. I am glad to share time with him on International Women's Day. People might laugh, but he has always supported women, as have my colleagues.

I make reference to what Deputy Micheál Martin said on radio today when he referred to the savage treatment of women and their children in mother and baby homes across the country. He referred, in particular, to the Tuam mother and baby home and the appalling testimonies we have heard in the past few years. I have been appalled and shocked by how the women were treated. They were seized from their homes and dragged kicking and screaming to mother and baby homes where their children were neglected and died. They lived with the stigma and shame for the rest of their lives. They were not able to conduct their lives in the same manner as plenty of men who were pillars of the community and faced no consequences for their actions. They were allowed to continue being pillars of the community. We need to examine our treatment of the women concerned and their children. It is not something that is in the past; they are still living among us in communities.We need to show compassion to women who have gone through appalling atrocities, as well as to their children and grandchildren. Many generations of people have suffered the consequences of these mother and baby homes. We also make the connection to what is going on at present with the many women and children in direct provision, a matter which has not been addressed. There is a dreadful lack of funding for women's refuges right across the country. In my own constituency it is at an appalling level. I woke up this morning to hear a mother and two children had lost their lives in Clondalkin while living in a women's refuge. We need to find out if this refuge was overcrowded, causing the fire to spread quicker and causing these three unfortunate and beautiful people to lose their lives. It is not good enough. We did not treat women with respect in the past and we need to get our act together in the present.