Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I rise to speak about the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill in the context of the stories that have been released in the past 24 hours by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone. There is nothing new about this story. We have all known this for a long time. I speak with some experience. I could have been adopted three times but my parents, individually, against all the odds, resisted the church and the State and refused to relinquish any of their seven children despite the judgments cast upon them and upon their fitness to be parents. In a way, 40 or 50 years later, I can now look back on that. However, I grew up from day one in what was described as a clearing house for adoptions. I grew up in the very building where the Wellcome drug trials took place. I was one of those subjected to them. I lived there. I want to draw the attention of Senators to one thing: Deputy Micheál Martin was Minister for Health when that matter came to light. One of his greatest political hours was his speech to Leinster House at the time. I am going to circulate it to every Member of both Houses today because he was the one who set up the inquiry, although it was overturned and found to be ultra vires. Hundreds and hundreds of boxes of information in respect of those matters were secured under court orders, but sadly that never went any further.

To return to the issue, for far too long people were denied knowledge of who they were, where they belonged, their history, their heritage and, for that matter, their religion. I will conclude because I am conscious of time, but I would ask the Leader if he would organise to have the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs come here in time. I specify in time because we need to speak with calmness. I will say one other thing before I make that ask. There are many people in this State, many of whom I know, who were adopted and who were exceptionally happy. Many people were facilitated with homes without going through the proper process but were happy. We cannot judge the past by the standards of today. There were many people in religious life who thought, perhaps misguidedly, that they were doing good and doing well for people. We know that in all of our families there were uncles, aunts and cousins who reared the children that nobody wanted. They did not do it out of badness or to mislead anybody. They did it to fill a vacuum and to give a child a bit of security, a bit of welfare and a bit of love. I want to paint that into the context because of how big an issue it is.

I will sum up by saying that every child should know where he or she was born, who his or her parents were, whether he or she had siblings, and whether he or she was inducted into a faith or religion or not. There is a bigger picture there. A lot of this could be dealt with through the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill. We should get that back on track. I would really welcome it if the Minister were to come and share her knowledge to date and to tell us why it has taken this long to come out with all of this. Why was it this week? Why not last week? A lot happens in a week in politics. We know what happened last week and we know that many things will happen next week. It is important for the Minister to come in. I would appreciate it if the Leader could raise that with her.