Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag ardú ceist inniu a bhaineann leis na tithe máithreacha agus leanaí agus go háirithe cás Thuama. I was talking to Ms Catherine Corless over the weekend. She is the lady who brought the issues around the Tuam Mother and Baby Home to public attention. Both she and the representatives of the survivors of many such homes are being frustrated by local authorities who are not allowing them access to very important public records on public funding that should be available to them to continue the research they are conducting. I know that this issue is being debated in the other House and that there is going to be a vote on it this evening. However, I am perplexed and dismayed that an amendment is being brought forward by Fianna Fáil to amend Sinn Féin's motion to try to block people from having access to files. It will not preserve the site which we are trying to have preserved, with all other mother and baby home sites and those at Magdalen laundries and industrial schools. I am absolutely dumbfounded that Fianna Fáil is trying to block this. One must ask the question: "Why is there such reticence on the part of some political parties and the State to allow people to see the historical archival files?" In Galway, for example, we want to see records of the public moneys paid to those homes, including State funding and payments from organs of the State such as Galway County Council for the upkeep of the homes, as well as other documents. I understand they are available on the websites of other local authorities. I would like the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to come to the House to see if it is possible to have a certain degree of homogeneity in order that all local authorities would have to make these records publicly available. People might then find the truth and join the dots of a very complicated jigsaw puzzle that is the history of these institutions. I call for a debate with the Minister on this issue.

I would also be grateful if the Leader updated me on an urgent issue I raised last week related to implementation of the International Protection Act 2015, the questionnaires being circulated and the issues connected with the direct provision system. The Leader indicated that the Minister of State, Deputy David Stanton, would come to the House to discuss the issue. It needs to happen sooner rather than later.