Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for outlining the business of the House. He might arrange for the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to debate the report that 27% of gardaí are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and what the Government and Department of Justice and Equality propose to do about that in terms of putting in place services to ensure that all those who have suffered the effects of work-related stress, but especially the Garda Síochána, have access to the necessary counselling.

I refer to what seems to be a bizarre situation where the Government is outlining that there are 126 cases of births illegally registered, as if this was news that had not come out before. On 17 May 2017, the Seanad debated Second Stage of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 and the reason that Bill was being brought in was because of this very issue. People should be entitled to information on their birth parents and to all information regarding the circumstances of their adoption. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, said she would bring forward Committee Stage amendments. Here we are one year later and suddenly it is news that 126 citizens of this State, and possibly hundreds if not thousands of others, are affected by this illegal practice. Again we have a situation where we have activity masquerading as action, where the Government agrees to the Second Stage of a Bill and promises the amendments but where there are no amendments. Why are there no amendments? Why has Committee Stage not been taken one year on?

Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House? I was going to say for a debate but let us not have a debate. Let us take Committee Stage of the Bill. If the Minister is available tonight and if the amendments are ready, let us change the Order of Business. If not, will we take Committee Stage of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 next week or the week after? We must bear in mind that the Bill was published in 2016, Second Stage was taken in 2017 and it is now in 2018. We now have this issue of hundreds of babies who were adopted illegally, or basically sold, by religious orders to people the United States and to the UK.

I would also like the Minister to come to the House to debate what is possibly a greater scandal where GlaxoSmithKline plc was involved in testing the babies of unmarried mothers. This happened less than 40 years ago. There seems to have been an arrangement, if not a contract or a business transaction, where it was given access to new born babies in Irish hospitals to use them as guinea pigs. The Minister is well aware of this and has said she was going to take action on it. The Minister has said a lot of things, but she has not done anything. Why have we not got a report on that issue? Why have the people who were subjected to those tests not been given all of the information by GlaxoSmithKline plc? Why have they not been given compensation by GlaxoSmithKline plc and the State? They were used as human guinea pigs in this State with the knowledge of the people who were supposed to be looking after them and yet they do not have access to the information they should have, just like the 126 citizens of this State who were illegally registered and whose birth certificates were altered.This was done not only without their consent but also without that of their birth parents. It was an illegal activity and the best defence the religious orders can come up with is that the people who did it are dead. Is that the best we can do?