Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very appropriate that Senator Boyhan is chairing this very sensitive and important discussion.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I acknowledge his sensitivity, kindness, hard work and determination to bring this matter to a conclusion. There will never be a satisfactory conclusion because no matter what money is paid or what compensation is given, it will never make up for the trauma and absolute depravity with which some of these women have been treated. The reality is that this trauma lives with them until the day that they die and that is the case for the vast majority.

I acknowledge what Senator Craughwell said and agree that there are stories where people were treated with kindness. One must be fair and acknowledge that not everybody who worked in these institutions were monsters. Unfortunately, a significant majority of the women who have been in these institutions were abandoned by their families, by society, by their communities and by the State. When these women became pregnant they were shipped off to these institutions where they gave birth. In many cases, the way in which they were treated after giving birth was barbaric. They were forced to breastfeed other children in order that they would not become attached to their own children. They barely saw their children before they were put up for adoption. Many of these women ended up staying for years in these institutions but for the rest of their lives have lived with the scars of how they were treated. Many of these women are elderly and in poor health. Is it possible for the Minister to hurry matters up? The year mentioned is 2023. These things take time but is there any way that the Minister could create an interim arrangement to support those women who are in poor health?

In terms of the medical card, surely we do not want these women to go through the standard primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, system of applying, providing information and possibly being turned down so having to appeal and all of that. Can the Minister put a dedicated team in the PCRS unit to deal with this matter? It is a simple thing that would make a huge difference because these women have suffered enough and we do not need them to suffer any more. I ask the Minister to put in place an interim arrangement for payments and to make it easy to acquire medical cards.

As for the children, Senator Craughwell referred to the threshold of six months and while I do not disagree with his analysis, perhaps there is a rationale for stipulating six months. I ask the Minister to look at the matter again. We are committing €800 million and it may not cost a huge amount more to do the right thing.

I wish to mention the children who were boarded out. These are children who were sent out as child labour - as child slaves if you like - to farms and into businesses. The term used to describe boarded-out children was that they were "in service". Some of them were treated with love and did get care but, unfortunately, they were in the minority. There is a lacuna in the Minister's proposals in terms of how we deal with children who were boarded out after being born and so would not have met the six months criterion. I would like to hear the thoughts of the Minister on how he might sensitively and appropriately address the matter.

The Minister has had held meetings with and engaged with the religious orders. I ask him to update the House on how those engagements went. Just over 20 years ago, there was an arrangement with the religious orders that quite frankly was a disgrace. What they paid in a different context was a tiny fraction of what they should have paid and that cannot happen in this context. The religious orders owe society but the Government owes it to the citizens of this country to make the religious orders step up to the plate and do what they need to do in order to address these matters.

Finally, I pay tribute to my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney, on the work that she has done in terms of engaging with mothers and children. Unfortunately, she cannot be here today and I am here to fill in for the Senator. On behalf of the Fine Gael group, I note - as I am sure everyone else in the House would agree - that she has worked extremely hard with the Minister and in this House on this issue. It is a privilege for me to represent her in this very important and sensitive debate.