Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's amendment. I want to touch on something Senator Higgins said. We have said this all along, and in fairness to the Minister he has also said this continuously, that we must be terribly careful about how we manage people's expectations. I heard Senator Higgins talk about information not being there. If there is nothing there, there is nothing there. We must just be upfront.

There is a suggestion that there is information somewhere for everybody who was in institutional care. There is not. There are many reasons the information is not there. In some cases it was destroyed. Places moved on and people got rid of the stuff. There was all sorts of motivation, good bad and indifferent. That is the critical thing. It is about the truth and it is about belonging. We must meet it head on.

The Bill is important, but also is how it is managed. In fairness, the Minister has also said this. How we manage this and the genuine expectation that people have is important. We cannot, in any way, hype up some expectation and then say, "There was nothing there and now you need services". Of course people need ongoing support. By the very nature of their experiences there is a need for ongoing support and counselling services. This must be tempered by a really upfront and honest approach. In many cases there is simply nothing there.

I have travelled this journey with so many people and they have found nothing there. That is just a matter of fact. This is one of the things that will ultimately be managed when the legislation comes into effect for how we manage that. The Minister has said this and I have said it on a number of occasions. We must be mindful of this.