Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator Boyhan as the Acting Chairperson for this debate. I acknowledge his work and experience of these issues.

At lunchtime today, I visited the National Gallery of Ireland to see a striking portrait of Catherine Corless, particularly ahead of the statements tonight. Her portrait was painted by Paul MacCormaic as part of the portrait competition that has been mentioned in the press. I want to recognise Catherine Corless, and all of the human rights activists and historians who have been relentless in their search for truth. As I am not sure if I have done so before, I want to take the opportunity to do so tonight.

The RTÉ documentary entitled "The Missing Children" deserves a mention and the stories that it told are heartbreaking. I thank everyone who took part in the documentary whether they did so in order to get justice or to remember and show respect for their loved ones who died or in order for society to grieve and wrap our arms around those who endured these institutions. There have been many moments when people in this country have been brought to tears by the stories of survivors and their families. The documentary is one of those moments where people in their homes across the country would have shed a tear.

I will never forget an episode of "Questions and Answers", which was presented by John Bowman, in 2009 when a former mayor of Clonmel, Mr. Michael O'Brien, spoke about institutional abuse. I do not think that many people in the country will ever forget that moment. I was 17 years of age when I watched the programme and I was greatly moved by the testimony.

I commend the Minister on the education and research initiatives being undertaken through the Department of Education on how best to support schools and enable students to learn about and understand this important and sensitive aspect of Ireland's history. I commend the Minister on these extremely important initiatives. In these moments, we want to comfort survivors and give them our full attention. These people are not to be messed with. They are our fellow citizens. They may be our neighbours, families or friends and I hope we can do right by them, particularly those who will not be with us for much longer. With that in mind, there are significant issues in respect of the redress scheme as it stands. The first such issue is the exclusion of infants who spent less than six months in a home. The second is the exclusion of women who spent less than three months in a home from accessing the enhanced medical card. The third is the exclusion from the scheme of children who were boarded out. I would welcome a response from the Minister on those issues.

The Minister referred to the debates in the Dáil last week. I do not wish to discuss the other House, but several calls were made for the Government to do a number of things. I will not go through the motion tabled in the Lower House as I do not have time to do so, but several calls were made on the Government last week. As the week has gone on, has there been an update on any of those issues?

I am conscious the Minister has inherited these responsibilities. He is not the person responsible for the commission of investigation. He inherited this work from his predecessors, some of whom failed to deal with these issues, but I know he has the empathy required and would have the support of the Oireachtas in terms of making the necessary changes to the scheme. He would have the full support of Sinn Féin in doing so. I would welcome a response from him regarding any developments that have taken place since the motion in the Dáil last week.