Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to wish everybody, including the staff here in Leinster House, a healthy and peaceful new year. I will not get an opportunity to speak in the debate this afternoon because of Covid-19 guidelines but I want to address the inhumane treatment of the people who were the residents of the mother and baby institutions. Their treatment has been compounded by the leaking of the report before it was seen by the most important people, that is, the survivors themselves.It is important that we all acknowledge the final report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. I wish to first highlight the inexcusable fact that survivors never received a copy of the report's executive summary, nor the report itself, when the Government had these reports since last October. I also pay tribute to the more than 500 individual survivors who came forward to the commission in trust and good faith to recount their traumatic experiences in these institutions. These survivors should have been the first to read this report. It is paramount, when these women have reopened their traumatic wounds of misogynistic institutionalisation, that the Government must prove how far we have involved not only with words, but we must now prioritise and honour the experience of the survivors and adequate legislative protection, redress and access to relevant data and adoptive files among other supports.

The recommendations proposed by the Clann Project in collaboration with the Adoption Rights Alliance, Justice for Magadelenes Research and Hogan Lovells International must be our main point of reference. They have been gathering witness statements from those affected by unlawful and forced family separation in Ireland since 2015. The recommendations by this firm can be divided into three categories. The first is information, identity, terminology and representation. This category is essential to vindicate the rights of all citizens to their own identity irrespective of their status at birth and so that their records can be easily accessed. The next category is health and well-being supports, which recommends that healthcare governance or programmes be created to reflect the dignity, privacy and value of the survivors, and that they should have access to free healthcare. The third is memorialisation and personal narrative, which recommends a national monument, living memorials and a national day to commemorate, respect and honour mothers and children held in these horrific institutions. It has also recommended protection of burial sites and data from research. It is essential that we include the reality of mother and baby institutions in the education system through the history curriculum for all schools across the country so that we can own the truth of our history and there is no doubt that we have a deeply shameful and dark past when it comes to the treatment of women in Ireland.

We will no longer succumb to silence. Now is the time to praise and honour the strength of these women in our words and, more importantly, in our actions.