Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members for their participation in this very important and sensitive debate. The Members and the Minister have done the House a service through their sensitive handling of this very important topic and report. As the Cathaoirleach, independent and impartial, I, like other Members, pay tribute to the survivors who pursued their right to be heard and to have their rights redressed. I thank them for their courageous action and behaviour. I thank Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, with whom I worked when I was Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children. I thank all those who participated today. I commend the Members on the way in which they have represented the House on this important issue. I thank Mick Finnegan for being here, but also for his tireless campaigning. I hope the report gives him a sense of a new beginning and a new chapter. Like Senator Seery Kearney, I grew up immersed in GAA and I very much hear what she said about St. John Ambulance and seeing it now in a different context.