Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. This is to facilitate the House as it is important, given the extreme sensitivity of the issue and that it is a matter of urgency. Senators Mark Daly, Conway-Walsh, Boyhan, Humphreys and Leyden contributed on the issue. I thank and compliment Senator Boyhan for his very personal contribution on the Order of Business. This is an historical wrong and, as we know, people have been denied what is rightfully theirs and it is important that we rectify this. As all of us have said here this morning, we are all thinking of the people affected by this awful tragedy and the awful wrong done to them. Senator Boyhan was generous when he said we cannot judge the past by the standards of today. He made a very magnanimous contribution. This is very much something we need to get right. We need to put ourselves in the shoes of people who have been treated so wrongly by the State and various institutions. If we are honest, this is about people trying to establish who they are, having to find a birth mother or father, wondering who they are and who are their siblings and, very often, being blocked by society or the institutions of the State.I know from friends of the heartache and turbulence in their lives. Senator Boyhan is correct as although some people are happy and do not want to find out any information, others do and it consumes them. I remember going through a phone book in a certain part of the country with a friend trying to find names. We drove a certain part of the country ten times in a day. I am thankful that person was reconciled with his birth mother but it consumed him.

Events are unfolding which are absolutely awful. I commend the Minister, Deputy Zappone, but I condemn Senator Leyden's remarks this morning. This was not an exercise in public relations but rather it was about getting the truth out there. That the children - now adults - were incorrectly registered is an appalling failure by the State.