Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson. It is very important that he is in the Chairperson's seat for this debate. I thank the Minister and his Department for continuing to hear statements on this issue. This independent report is a significant body of work that was led by Judge Yvonne Murphy, Professor Mary E. Daly and Dr. William Duncan. Its pages talk about the lives of more than 56,000 women and 57,000 children across 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes between 1922 and 1998.Over that 80-year period, 9,000 children died in those homes. The lived experience as told by survivors and children is absolutely appalling. The confidential committee gathered accounts from survivors, as well as people who worked in those institutions. We can only imagine what it was like for survivors, mothers and children, now as adults telling of their painful experiences, sometimes for the first time. Some of those people had never even spoken to their families. I am conscious of those suffering in silence while listening to these debates, and who may never have spoken of their experiences.

More than 550 courageous people who came through those homes gave accounts of their experiences, roughly 300 mothers and 200 children. It is shocking as Irish citizens and representatives to read those accounts, and to feel such shame. It is our history too of how Irish women and children were treated, and the stigma of being an unmarried mother, abandoned by families and children who were also set apart in Irish society. Kindness was in short supply for people who did not have any money to their name and those women were destitute and had nowhere to go. In that regard, I refer to the impact of poverty, misogyny, societal attitudes, the role of the church, entwined with that of the State, the lack of oversight, the lack of kindness, even down to the lack of a proper diet for mothers and babies and the freezing conditions. In the cold blunt terms of the report, these homes "significantly reduced their prospects of survival".

Instead of the homes being a safe haven for mothers and babies whom we should have cherished, the report clearly highlights where we failed as a State, a country and as a society. Mahatma Gandhi stated that, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members". These personal testimonies from survivors show us that we now have an opportunity for our weakest members, for our destitute and abandoned young mothers and children, to speak. In those confidential committees, they talked about how there was a lack of education and sexual education and about not knowing the facts of life.

Yes, the Catholic Church had an influence in that regard in Irish society and in the educational system at that time. Brutal accounts, which are so hard to read, have been given of rape and abuse within families. We heard of how the homes were actually an escape from those harrowing conditions. I refer to the role of families and the Catholic Church in organising for young girls to be sent to the homes. We know from this report the importance of the provision of secondary school education and the unmarried mother's allowance, as well as other social changes. Those innovations brought more rights and financial independence to unmarried mothers.

Being from Ballinasloe in County Galway, I was drawn to the commission's report on the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. It was initially located in Glenamaddy, before moving to Tuam. The home took unmarried mothers from counties Galway and Mayo, and from my own home area. Tuam stands out in this report for the appalling conditions of the building, the lack of midwives, how some of the children boarded out and for the stigma and physical abuse they endured. It also stands out for how, even at that time, decisions of the local authority were deferred to the clergy.

The heart-rending element of the high infant mortality rate in the 1920s and 1930s was at its worst during the Emergency, or war years, in the 1940s. Inflation rose by nearly 70% for the cost of goods and the capitation fee did not change. There were huge food shortages and terrible times in this country. The lack of food and nutrition meant most mothers could not breast-feed their own children and that led to more infection and increased gastroenteritis. These were the reasons for the high mortality rate. More than 978 children died in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home with no burial records. This is shameful. Where were our hearts?

The historian, Catherine Corless, was instrumental in the fight for these mothers and babies. She sparked this commission of investigation and was committed to sourcing death certificates. There has been strong criticism of the local authority in Galway at that time, which owned and governed the mother and baby home in Tuam. Meetings were held there and yet there was never a discussion of the infant mortality rates, and neither was there ever such a discussion at national level in Government. Those deaths were being recorded at the time but there was silence, the same silence that causes the worst outrages in society, where people just cannot speak of events and no questions are asked.

I spoke with survivors and survivor representative groups to try to understand the hurt and anger over these serious issues. I pay tribute to survivors and to those suffering in silence while dealing with the traumatic effects. The helpline number in Roscommon, Galway and Mayo is 1800 234114. I support the recommendations in this independent report and that the responses should be survivor-led and survivor-centred. I call on the Minister to review survivors' concerns regarding the reflection of testimonies in this report.

The model of the commission of investigation may not have been the right instrument, but we had no other choice at the time. I refer to information and tracing legislation. Legislation on the Tuam exhumation, the general scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill, is scheduled to have pre-legislative scrutiny in the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration. That needs to happen quickly. There must also be redress, as well as counselling and enhanced medical cards. Memorialisation and legacy should be part of the educational system.

The Taoiseach gave an apology on behalf of the Government. The chief executive and cathaoirleach of Galway County Council also gave a full apology yesterday and again this morning on Galway Bay FM. It is important for the people of Galway to hear these acknowledgements, as so many families have been impacted by this report. The local authority was the entity in charge of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home and it noted in its apology that it failed in its duty of care.It acknowledged that the infant mortality was known and overcrowding led to poor infection control, and said it did not do enough. It noted the role of the local authority in ensuring care and also our role, as a State. Galway County Council has committed to co-operating fully in implementing whatever Government decisions are made on this matter. The survivors' group and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance have welcomed this apology from Galway County Council, and I am very happy to hear that. They have also acknowledged the support provided by Galway County Council in recent times.

The Sisters of Bon Secours, which ran the home in Tuam, have apologised. A contribution to the redress scheme is required and some may already have been committed. This has taken so many years and caused so much pain to survivors. This report is immensely distressing and is a dark part of Ireland's history. It is the first step to justice for survivors and their families to give them a voice. Our country will be judged across the world for how it treats its weakest members.