Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I was mindful when I was Acting Chairman earlier and now as I stand here that I am someone who has travelled this journey. I was born in 1961 in the St. Kevin's Dublin Union Institution and lived in many institutions throughout my life. If I were to be honest and asked myself what politicised me then it was that sense of injustice and denial. It was the sense that there was so much wrong going on with people with whom I shared dormitories and living quarters. These were institutions where one ate, slept and were educated but never left. These were institutions where one looked through a pane of glass in the hope that someone might hear one's voice and listen to what one had to say so I bring personal experience to this story.

I am not a child of a single mother as many people here referred to. Many of the children who were incarcerated in these institutions had both a mother and father. I am happy to say that I am the youngest of seven siblings and even though we were kept in different places, we all speak and are a family of brothers and sisters.

One thing that I said as a young child when leaving the institution, something we always ritually said was "never forget us"; we said "do not leave" and "never forget us", which are words that I have kept in my heart, mind and spirit. I was elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council many years ago and if I were asked which was more important, being elected and walking through the doors of the county hall in Dún Laoghaire or walking into the Dáil and Seanad of Leinster House, my answer would be becoming a county councillor becase the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown community took me on board. It is a community that I ended up joining not by choice but by circumstance. By choice, I chose to live there because it was there that I found colleagues, friends and a supportive community.

It is very important that we all have the opportunity to tell our story. We have lived it but, more important, we must be believed. Too often, too many children were labelled as bitter, twisted or angry and presumed to either have an axe to grind with the institution, their own family or with somebody else or there was another agenda. People do not tell lies about their experiences. People do not make up stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. People want just justice and truth. People want to be able to tell their story. We have had the Ryan commission, the Martin McAleese report and the Residential Institutions Redress Board. Many are the same people who have come through different strands to seek redress. However, I urge the Minister not to lock away people's unique stories. We are all unique and everybody has a unique story to tell. Please allow survivors to access their information on their basis. The appalling story of life, death and adoptions inside and outside of mother and baby homes and other institutions cannot be hidden away for another 30 years.

I hope that when Mr. Justice Murphy's report is published that it goes to the Cabinet, the Government and the Attorney General. I hope that within days it will go to the Garda Commissioner because he and his staff must also analyse this important document for breaches, criminality or wrongdoing and ensure that people are brought to justice. It is also important that we have redress.

Finally, I keep in touch with many people who are homeless in Dublin, have addiction problems, never got opportunities and were never able to be educated because they were held and dampened down physically and emotionally, and were unable to grow spiritually, academically or realise their potential.Let us hope for more of this because it is all information but good must come from the flow of this information. There must be a recognition of what has happened, rehabilitation, housing and medical support, and any other support required. Having all of this information sitting in boxes in rooms is no good if we are not going to be motivated by all of this to help these people get on with their lives.

I thank the Minister. He has a difficult job. We must bear in mind the people who have lived these experiences. The Minister must listen to their requests. That is important.