Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House and I thank him for his comprehensive overview of the Bill. I will not go into it in as fine detail as the Minister.

Today is an important milestone along the tragic dark road we are all facing up to. Since entering the Oireachtas I have had many meetings with the families affected, mostly the women. I have cried at those meetings; I have been shocked. I have learned so much about human decency and dignity from the women and children affected. I have also heard that sense of urgency the Minister will be aware of and frustration as to why exhumation has not yet happened. I share this frustration with many people in the country and globally. These families want to give their loved ones the respect and dignity they were so grievously denied in their short lives. It is wrong that the previous Government failed to do this. When it first came to light, the Department of Justice should have worked to give those babies in Tuam an adequate burial and put in all the resources and legislation required. The normal rules did not apply because these babies had no voices and their mothers had their voices suppressed and often stolen. The Minister with responsibility for children is taking care of a Bill that deals with coroners.

I am glad to be part of a Government that is doing the right thing. I think of the thousands of women, babies and children who lost their lives. This is the country's desperate truth. By not working to look after and protect them, we make our history our present. It is our sick reality. It is desperate how we treated beautiful, sacred and precious wee lives and how this country treated young women and girls who were pregnant outside of marriage. Every time I speak on these issues, I speak with a deep sense of heartache and shame as an Irish woman. The sense of patriotism I so strongly feel sits uncomfortably alongside my shame, anger and tears for an Ireland that let women just like me down. It robbed them of their children, their futures, their dignity, their money and their Ireland. It destroys the true republican ideals that I grew up with and my understanding that men, women and children were treated equally. Shame on everyone. Shame on our church, our State, our institutions, our Governments, our health service, our Garda and everyone. We are all part of this story and this awful truth. It is something I find very difficult to reconcile.

The Bill should not be necessary. Ireland should have done better. Those wee lives in Tuam and all the other institutions should have been treated with respect, love and dignity. While I am impatient that the children in Tuam are looked after, I am glad the legislation is not site-specific and will also be able to cater for an intervention at other sites and memorialisations should similar situations arise. When we establish the Tuam investigation, I hope there will be an audit of potential sites and consideration of memorialisation. It must cater for places where children and women are buried and excavations are not necessary. Let us remember how invasive excavations are. Little remains should not always be moved if they are in a safe place. I think of Bessborough and Ann O'Gorman, one of the strongest and gentlest women I have met. Ann had her little Evelyn in that horrid home and little Evelyn died. It was only after years of searching that Ann found out that Evelyn was buried in the burial ground in Bessborough. What Ann and women like her want is very simple. They want their loved ones to rest in peace. She wants a place to come and sit in the burial ground and for it to be protected and owned by the State and to know that Evelyn and the other little angels, and the many young women who lost their lives, who were not respected in life will now be respected in their death.

I am thankful that we are here today. I am furious with our country that we have to be here today. I congratulate the Minister on the work he and his officials have done. I thank him for the many positive changes he has made since the original draft Bill. These are important changes as he as quite rightly outlined. I commend my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney, and all members of the committee. We worked hard together on the pre-legislative scrutiny. I commend all of the stakeholders and all the affected people who came to the committee to give us their deepest darkest stories about their family members.

I will finish with some comments directed to the religious orders and the churches. They should face up to these sins, as Senator Boyhan highlighted. The truth will set them free. Give the burial grounds they have in their ownership to the State. Give them back to the women and the people we let down. Give over all of the information. The Bill is about human rights, dignity and respect. It will allow people to rest in peace. We need to ensure we do this. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.