Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second Senator Boyhan's amendment. I have known Victor since I came into politics and I have to say that I stand here in awe of the man. The courage he has shown from his first day in the Senate, when he brought this issue to the floor of the Senate on his first day. He has never, ever backed down. He has put his private life on the public stage, and he has been the strongest advocate I have ever known in my life. Today, I believe he has spoken for the last time on this Bill. To my mind, the amendments he has put forward are perfectly reasonable. Let us talk about a few things. Let us talk about the 1960s and 1970s before many in this room were born. Young girls who fell pregnant in Galway were sent to a local priest, and the priest organised for their internment; for their period of holiday away from the city. Some went to institutions. Some went to families. All suffered the same thing. They were imprisoned for the period of their confinement - of their pregnancy. Many never returned. Many carried the pain they suffered right through their lives and to the grave. Nothing we can do in this House is going to take away that pain. Yet, we talk all the time in this country about responsibility and about the Constitution we have and how it looks after the State.The Constitution did not mean a continental damn to those girls who were pregnant and even less to those children born out of those pregnancies. As Senator Boyhan rightly pointed out, if people happened to be born as a result of a mixed-race engagement, they were even further discriminated against.

Speaking about the farming out of children, I had occasion in my life to meet a man once who was in his 70s. He had been working for the same farmer from the day he left the institution. This man was served his three meals a day in the farmer's house - his breakfast, his lunch and his dinner. He was paid a small wage that allowed him to have a few pints after a hard day's work. I met this man when he was in his 70s and he was still living in the barn on that farm. He was not living in the house. Let us think of the outrage the book, Roots, caused in its time. People were treated as animals. When they failed to find birth certificates for people, they looked to the animal registration records for them and that is where they found them. The man I am referring to was held in no greater esteem. He is long since dead and he had no family. He was born in an institution and he left it to become imprisoned on a relatively generous farm, where he was well looked after with his three meals a day, his clothes and a few bob for pints, but he lived in a barn along with the other animals.

This is what we are talking about here. I refer to the points made by Senators Gavan and Boyhan and my other colleagues. A colleague of mine sitting in the Gallery today has put her private life into the public domain. None of us sitting in this room, in our wildest dreams, can understand what these people went through. This State is awash with money. Money is coming out of every corner of this State. We are talking about having a budget surplus this year of €11 billion and a possible surplus next year of €16 billion. Good God Almighty tonight, the €24,000 that Senator Gavan mentioned is a pittance.

Let us think of all the professional people in this country who engaged in this system and did nothing. I commend the Minister on what he is doing. He has at least taken a step to try to find some recompense for these people. Teachers, gardaí, priests, nuns, doctors and people in every profession we can think of were involved in this in one way or another and they covered it up. Senator Boyhan has pointed out that commitments made by institutions have never been lived up to. They could not give a continental damn. Is this Christian Ireland? I am terribly sorry my colleague read the prayer into the record today because prayer means sweet damn all in this country when it comes to the way we treated these children. Where was the State and the Constitution to look after these children?

Some, but not all, were brutalised. I have had conversations with a few girls I knew who had children out of wedlock. Some had good experiences and others had terrible ones. The 180 days in this context, to my mind, is a nonsense. At the end of the day, if people had to walk through one of those places and stay in it for two days, it was two days too long. I ask the Minister to take on board the proposed amendment of Senator Boyhan. If nothing else, this would show that the State is genuinely concerned with trying to make it up to those we absolutely destroyed. We ruined their young lives and took them away from their families.

Regarding the point Senator Boyhan made about a child being born into a family, the mother being urged to shut up and say nothing, while some other woman took over as the mother, I am aware of an instance where that took place. The young man was brought up as a brother and not as a son. It was one of those great secrets that everybody in the village knew about but about which nobody spoke. He was denied access to his mother and his mother was denied access to her son in the sense of a mother-and-son relationship. They were forced into a sister-and-brother relationship and this was a form of imprisonment that nobody can justify.

While the Minister is trying to do the right thing here, I urge him to go the full step. I ask him to ensure that when he leaves this matter behind him, he leaves nothing undone or unsaid. I urge him to ensure that we put the children and the women who were brutalised, either physically or mentally or a combination of both, by this country first and to hell with the begrudgers. The money is there to do this, so let us do it. The Taoiseach said the other day that he had no difficulty with one-off payments and this was not committing the State to future payments. Let us then use some of this money. In many cases, I am sure it will make no bloody difference anyway, but let us do what we can. I will leave my contribution at this. There is no point in dragging this out. I trust that if the Minister cannot accept the proposed amendment, he will go down the dual route my colleague has suggested.