Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. As I was listening to Senator Pauline O'Reilly, the expression "Blessed are those amongst women" struck me because there are virtually no men in the Chamber. I am the only male Senator present - the Cathaoirleach of course is here too, as well as the Minister. For some reason that clicked with me and I thought about it and that is quite profound in itself. I thank the Minister for the enormous amount of work he has done. He has travelled a journey as well, as have so many other people.

I spoke about Dr. Muldoon earlier on and I welcomed his reappointment as the Ombudsman for Children. I talked about a past, a present and a future. I do not want to spend too much time talking about the past but I can tell this House that I grew up in institutional care and spent all of my youth there. I was born in the South Dublin Union in St. Kevin's Hospital, which is now St. James's Hospital and I was not adopted. Therefore, this report leaves many glaring holes. We talk about mother and baby homes and children who were in homes and who were adopted but what about the children who were not adopted? What about the children who were being prevented from being adopted? What about the people who fell outside of the definition of a family? I want to touch on that particular issue later on. As the Minister well knows, they went on to be in full-time residential care. If there were horror stories in the mother and baby homes, there were even greater horror stories in the long-term residential care homes.

I speak as a man who has lived the experience. I am 59 years of age and I will be 60 this coming May and I do not want to spend any more of my life talking about it. It does not define me, I am not a victim and I dare say I am not even a survivor. I lived my life and I enjoyed many happy times. I encountered many good and happy people. I am happy to say that I was in institutions that were religious and lay and I do not want them to be forgotten. It is important it is heard out there that we are not all victims and that we had experiences. I am the seventh of seven children and I am in touch with every one of them. We joked the other day about how many other families of seven are in contact, are on speaking terms and are friendly, loving and supportive. I too had the great honour and privilege of giving the eulogy at the grave and funeral of both my mother and father.That healed many wounds and misunderstandings in terms of a community that rejected them and did not stand with them. I am Church of Ireland by birth, heritage and choice so it is very important to say that it was not always the Catholic Church, the priest or the nun.

To deal with the report briefly, it was limited in its terms of reference. That was not the response of the judge or the commission. If one reads the discussions, the minutes and the papers one will know the politics of the terms of reference and why they were so narrow. The commission was limited in the institutions it investigated. It did not investigate the number of institutions I lived in, which were owned by the same group. It was limited in its accessing of information. That was partly because much of it was destroyed, although not all deliberately. Things move on and there are new personnel, new changes and people responsible so it was limited in that respect also. Many of its personal testimonies were never heard in public. One of the glaring problems in this report is that people say they were denied the opportunity to give public testament. We all have an innate need, which is primal in many ways, to tell our story. All of us have unique stories to tell. None of us is unique but there is a real need to tell our stories, which is very important. I had a telephone conversation with the Minister last week. I thank him for that offer which I took up. Both he and I were conscious of how long everyone takes to tell their story. That is just part of this process and it is very important that we listen.

Many people were traumatised but I want to highlight some glaring lines in the report. It states that women were admitted to these institutions from 12 to 40 years of age. Unaccompanied children were called foundlings. Many children were left at doors. I spoke to a man this very day whose mother, with whom he is now in touch, pressed a bell, left him in a little Moses basket and ran away. There is no history there other than that is the story.

Page 41 of the report was very disturbing. It refers to Thomastown, which I presume is Thomastown, in County Kilkenny, where 58 infants were sleeping in 32 cots. The report also states, which I found very disturbing, that the sleeping arrangements were often inherently unsafe. This is shocking and harrowing and rather than misquote anybody it needs to be read into the record of the House. The commission states: "The Commission has not heard direct evidence of abuse of children [surprise, surprise] in county homes but is aware that the sleeping arrangements were often inherently unsafe particularly for boys who often slept in adult wards and sometimes in the same bed as an adult." Do not tell me that is not abuse. Do not tell me that does not leave children exposed to all sorts of problems but that is the past. It happened, and we need to acknowledge it. That is very important.

Senator Pauline O'Reilly touched on councils. I have made contact with many councils about this issue and I know many of them are bringing it up. I am elected by county councillors. I am lucky and very privileged in that regard. I want to put on the record that every day I come into this House I am exceptionally proud to be here. I want to be here. My experience in the past, with all its difficulties, setbacks and challenges, politicised me. I am so happy that I can stand here as a Member of the Oireachtas and have that privilege and honour to be one little voice that in some way represents some of the people who grew up with me. I keep in touch with many of them which I believe is important.

The commission interviewed and gathered sworn affidavits from 555 people during this investigation. The report spans from 1922 to 1998 and covers 14 mother and baby homes and a representative sample but many other institutions were left out. There is a suggestion that there may be compensation, redress or restitution for people. Anyone who was in care and should have been under some sort of supervision by the State must get redress if they have not got it. I ask the Minister to please allow people have redress regardless of the institution they were in. There are people and institutions who were excluded from the commission's report. Surely the Minister will not put them at any disadvantage.Whatever redress scheme the Minister agrees, I ask him not to issue gagging orders to people to prevent them talking afterwards. That would not be fair, right or proper. We are told in this report that 56,000 or 57,000 children stayed in these institutions and we know that over 9,000 people died. It is shocking and terrible and it should not have happened.

People talk about not being heard or listened to. A woman spoke very movingly on RTÉ radio on Sunday. She talked about how she was a woman of faith and continued to be a woman of faith. She saw somebody go away with a child in a box. She believed the child was hers and all she wanted was that it be buried in consecrated ground. She said her heart was broken and she could not shed any more tears. There were no more tears to give. It is important that we move on and that we have restitution and deal with that.

The Wellcome Foundation carried out drug trials, which I lived through and was subject to in the institution I was in. The Taoiseach will be fully aware of this matter because we engaged on it 20 years ago. I told this House some months ago about our engagement on it and there are substantial records of engagement with him on it. To be fair, he was supportive, but there was no justice and nothing done. I want to say, particularly in the context of Covid, that I am not anti-vaccine. I will queue up to have a vaccination. I want to make that clear. They are two separate issues. It is about accountability. I ask that Wellcome, now GlaxoSmithKline, be asked to make a substantial contribution to any redress scheme. That will be important

It is also important that people are heard. Public service journalism was at its best on this issue. I thank the journalists, whether television journalists or those who write and type, who helped and stood in solidarity with me and many others. They shone a light on the story.

My final thanks are to the brave women. There were some brave men who were denied access to their children too and I know of some of them. I thank the brave women for telling their story, laying bare their vulnerability, which is so important to them, and shining a light on their lives and on our shared history. Our response must be redress, support, enhanced pensions, enhanced opportunities for housing and all that goes with all of that. Finally - and I know no one here will be shy or will fall short in this regard - our response and the Government response must be one of compassion, care and justice.