Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to put on record Sinn Féin’s support for all of these amendments. These are important reports. I hope the Minister is not wasting our time. I hope he has not come here with a fixed mind to reject each and every amendment that has been tabled.

On amendment No. 33, I highlight that since last week a number people have asked me where the Government got these financial figures. The Minister might explain where the calculation of the figure of €3,000 for people who had to leave the State and are not ordinarily resident in the State came from. It seems woefully inadequate, frankly. I am thinking in particular of the experience of so-called pregnant from Ireland, PFI, women, that is, women from Ireland who were pregnant who went to England and were then effectively forced back to Ireland and into one of these horrific institutions, particularly the one in Castlepollard, because that is where I grew up when I came home. We used to go to mass there as children. How bizarre is that, given it was effectively a place of torture. Women were humiliated when they arrived. Their clothes were taken from them and they were put into horrible brown nylon clothes and had their hair cropped. They did manual work, such as chopping and carrying logs and digging potatoes. They were treated like slaves. This was all as punishment from the Almighty, apparently. After they were forcibly separated from their children, many of those women fled back to Britain. These are the people referred to in amendment No. 33. We know that amount is for effectively suffering torture at the hands of the State and these religious institutions. That is what effectively went on and I do not think the Minister disagrees with me on that. I wish to understand where that figure of €3,000 comes from, if possible please.

I cannot agree more with Senator Higgins on amendment No. 34. The issue of forced family separation is absolutely crucial. At the moment, the Minister seems to be ignoring that and doing this bizarre time-based scheme whereby if somebody spent 179 days in an institution, they get nothing, whereas if they spent 180 days, they might get €5,000. I once again ask him to explain that because he has not yet done so. I believe those watching at home and our guests in the Gallery want to hear an explanation from him. That is not too much to ask.

Amendment No. 35 requires a report on top-up payments for those in receipt of inadequate settlements. Clearly, that will be important because, as it has been described, this is a very basic redress scheme. We know that payments will not be adequate in many cases and, therefore, why not, at the very least, call for and sanction a report in that regard?

Finally, I support amendment No. 36, which requires a report on the creation of a support fund for those with additional needs. It is a reasonable and important request.

It is funny because when Senator Boyhan was talking about that horrific deal done by Michael Woods, the disgraced Fianna Fáil Minister, whether we are going down that road again with the drug companies was in my mind.It is absolutely crucial that the Minister details what actions he will take in this regard. It looks like these companies are getting off absolutely scot-free, as are the religious institutions at the moment by the way, in the ongoing talks and the new negotiator. It is entirely unacceptable. The Minister might give us as much clarity as he can on how he intends to tackle the horrific wrongs that were done by these drug companies and how he intends to extract adequate compensation.