Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----administration and even finances when we look at things like the vaccine trials that took place on children in Ireland. It is important for us to look at that issue. There is a double role. There is the identity of individuals and the battle in that regard, but there is also our shared identity. I feel very passionately about this issue and we need to be able to look at it. We have seen two examples. In the commemoration of the 1916 Rising we saw that we were able to face up to a difficult history. We are able to talk abut the nuances and engage with them. In a different way, the recent referendum on the eighth amendment showed us that, as a nation, we were able to talk and trust each other. We are able to talk about these difficult issues. We can be trusted to look at and engage with this archival material, learn from it and grow collectively from it. Compared to many other European nations, we are unfortunate in that there are large holes in the National Archives. There was the fire that destroyed large parts of them. There are other areas where great archives were destroyed. More recently, in our social history, we have seen the destruction of things like the symphysiotomy files. It was not just a terrible issue for the women affected, it is also something for us from which to learn as we design and move forward in schools, hospitals and medical care. As a nation, we need to say we do not need more holes in our social history. I refer not only to the fact that, in many cases, records are held in either private situations or unsafe conditions, but also to the fact that they are being lost. The Bill Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell proposes to introduce in the autumn is urgent.