Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. I welcome the publication of the report and I acknowledge the work and effort that went into its production. As others have said, it is important that the recommendations and summaries are discussed with survivors and that their views on the next steps forward are taken into account and are followed through. There are many very worthy recommendations in the report but if we have to go further, and if we need to go further, engagement with survivors needs to be looked at.

It is fair to say that every adjective has probably been used in describing this period of our past. It is easy to look at previous times with today's lens. The cathaoirleach and the chief executive of Galway County Council both made statements at yesterday's council meeting. The chief executive, Mr. Kevin Kelly, said:

The report contributes significantly to our deeper appreciation and understanding of the past failures of the State, including this local authority, in the provision of care to the women who were forced to enter the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. It is to our shame, that we acknowledge, that there, when at their most vulnerable, in need of compassion, empathy, support and understanding and in need of our care, we failed them.

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The report identified that in the congregated settings of mother and baby homes poor sanitary conditions had much more serious consequences for disease and infection control and identified Tuam as having appalling conditions. It is also clear that the death rate among infants in the Tuam mother and baby home was noted and, while known to be a multiple of the general population, did not prompt appropriate action.

The lack of respect and dignity afforded to the women and children in death is also particularly upsetting and a source of great hurt and sorrow. The council accepts its role in failing to ensure that these individuals were afforded the dignity of an appropriate and respectful resting place.

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No one can change the past; however it is important that we accept and learn from it, acknowledge the sad and painful truth, the personal impact and heavy burden carried by survivors and humbly acknowledge our failings.

I, as a former member, concur with the full statement produced yesterday by Galway County Council.

I was shocked to read that the greatest number of admissions to homes were in the 1960s and 1970s. I would have thought, if someone had asked, that it would have been the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The 1960s were a period of change and industrialisation in this country, when people were coming back home. We joined the European Economic Community, EEC, in the early 1970s. To think that this was the period of the highest admissions to these homes is hard to fathom.

It is also clear that in this State, it was a man's world. There were men who got girls and women pregnant and did not take responsibility. Of course, that does not apply to all men, as others have said, but there were those who did not take responsibility. We think of the men in the church, and it was predominantly men, although many nuns also acted in an unchristian manner within these institutions. We think also of the men in politics, and it was predominantly men, in the Dáil, Seanad and local councils. Some of those men were in charge of these institutions.

Where the man in question did not take responsibility and left the woman or girl alone, she faced difficult choices to go abroad to relations, perhaps, or else to tell her family and present to one of these homes until such time as the baby was born and adopted. We need to acknowledge the impact that these forced periods in county or mother and baby homes had on the children and their mothers, how their stay impacted their lives, how many, if not all, were scarred by the experience, certainly mentally, and had consequences throughout their lives. There was unfilled potential and lives were ruined. There were searches for adopted children who would have had questions as adults or teenagers, whenever they found out.

The connection between church and State was clear. There was hypocrisy in a church that acted in a Christian spirit, as it were, but acted in the opposite way to unmarried mothers. The issue of legitimacy was being debated in these Houses in the 1980s. It is hard to fathom and shameful.

There was also the role of a society that was so in thrall to religion and dogma that Christian actions were not followed. The Taoiseach stated last week in the Dáil that the State has failed time and again, for decades, to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens. That is absolutely true. Former Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, talked in his speech to Pope Francis about the fact that we, as a State, did not have a Minister for health or social welfare until 1947. There was an interconnection between church and State. Obviously, not all of it was bad, but this was a shameful period and we need to apologise and atone for it. I acknowledge the work that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has done and the particular interest that he has in the matter. I know that he will follow up with survivors in line with the recommendations in this report. That will be important.