Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My two colleagues have covered much of what we in Sinn Féin wanted to say. I pay tribute to all those in the Visitors Gallery who are joining us. I salute their courage and perseverance in getting to the bottom of this issue. I salute the courage, perseverance and wonderful work of Catherine Corless. The pride that I feel for somebody like Catherine Corless is immeasurable. What that woman has come across, the barriers that have been put in her way, and the efforts that have been made to stop her work are an indictment on this State.

I commend the Minister as well, and what Catherine Corless said about her when the Minister made contact. The Minister had the decency to pick up the phone and liaise with her. I encourage the Minister to continue with that. People recognise her genuine efforts to get this matter sorted. We are talking about State-facilitated torture of these women and children. It was only a short while ago. We had a Government in place at the time. We had people in places of power and in very well-paid positions who enabled this to happen to these women and children. Yesterday was International Women's Day and I wonder if the same thing would have gone on if they were not women. Was it allowed because they were somehow a lesser class of people within this society?

There has to be an international element to this as well because of the number of babies that were sold to other countries, including America and England. There are children spread all over the world as a result of the State-facilitated torture that was allowed to go on in this country. We have to ask why it happened. It happened because of money in many cases, and it happened because of abuse of power and control within this State. What can we all collectively do or try to do about it now?If we come across individuals, organisations or institutions that are trying to stop the truth from being recovered, what mechanism is available to us to hold them to account? I ask the Minister to clarify that and to update the House on the role of the Garda Síochána to date and into the future.

This issue needs to be tackled on an all-island basis. What plans does the Minister have to work on that basis? I thank the Minister and those who have been involved thus far. I commend the courage of the survivors. Hopefully it will not be too long before we get to the truth, hold people accountable and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. It has been very difficult in the past week to be proud to be Irish.