Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

What does one say to all of that? At the outset, the Minister has accepted no amendments at any part of the process in this House. That is the record. I said before, from my experience of working with the Minister, that I believe he would have gone further. He may ask how I believe that. I talk to enough people and I listen to enough people in the corridors of power, both in Leinster House and in other places. I absolutely do not doubt the Minister's commitment. I also recognise the issue with the tripartite coalition Government, where one cannot win all of the battles and campaigns. We cannot always be successful in our advocacy work. We are pilgrims on a journey and I believe in continuing to journey. I do not believe in giving up heart. I do not take things personally, although I am impacted by them personally, because that would not be the right thing to do as a politician and as someone who believes that the power of advocacy is important in these Houses. I want to say that. I try to be respectful to everybody. They are entitled to their different opinions.

In responding to the Minister's response on these amendments, we touched on a number of issues. To remind ourselves, we touched on and hoped we could extend this scheme beyond issues like abuse in the boarding out, the adoptive placements, those abused with forced labour, the vaccine trials, the racial and disability-based discrimination, or the illegal expatriation outside of the State for adoption. There are a number of issues relating to that. The Minister will be conscious, as I and people in this Seanad Chamber are conscious, as are people listening in, that many people gave personal testimony in a non-adversarial way. How that was interpreted and reported was at some variance to their personal experience and personal story. That was all subject to legal proceedings and other pieces and I do not want to rehash it all here because many of those people are not here and that would not be the right thing to do either.

I want to say a few things in finishing up. Money cannot be and should not be an excuse for a report. When I moved this, I originally said 12 months, which is one year, then I moved the second amendment, which was for 24 months. The Minister and everybody else in government may not be in office. They may be elected but they may not be in office. I may not even be elected here. I may not even choose to be elected here. Many of us may have gone on to other things. Many Members may have gone from this House to the Lower House. These are the musical chairs of politics and life. I think we will have other opportunities. I am mindful of the Opposition here today who have stuck with this. I thank them. I particularly thank the Civil Engagement Group, my own Independent Group, the Labour Party group and indeed Sinn Féin for all of their support. We have done our bit on this.

I want to stay focused in response to the amendments that the Minister has responded to. I will just say that we will have other opportunities. We cannot lose hope. I say that meaningfully. I got up this morning and thought this was like the last day of school. This is the last day this year that I have to come in and talk about this particular issue. That is not to say I am going to give up on it. I am going to continue. We will have a new administration. It is incumbent on us in the Opposition, who have had a frustrating time in trying to make any inroads because the Minister has not accepted any of our amendments. The Government Senators here have not tabled any amendments. That is telling in itself. I talked about the committee work and read out their names. They did not bring forward any proposals. This is why we do advocacy, articulate views, represent the people in these Chambers and make legislation. I hear what the Minister is saying and I am disappointed.

I looked at The Irish Timesthe other day and Cliff Taylor had a piece on how the State should spend a €16 billion surplus, which listed 16 ideas. I thought I would love to add a 17th idea. I just did not get time to write to The Irish Times, but it was just to say that we could ring-fence money for these people. We are not talking about a lot of people. In that context, I am also conscious, as Senator Hoey said, while I will not say "justice" because I do not think anyone will get justice from this, that there are many people who will get a measure of comfort and some form of redress that might lighten their load from this. I do not want to prolong this for them. Too many of them have died. We talked about Mr. Kelly earlier. He is dead. He was semi-precluded from some aspects of the redress scheme anyway and he was aware of that. We will not block this legislation. The Opposition does not have the numbers. The Government Senators have not tabled an amendment. For all their advocacy, the record of the House is that they did not table an amendment. Therefore, this legislation will be passed because we have a Whip system and the Government Senators are all subject to the Whip.Whatever I do here today will not make a difference, but at least I will have had the opportunity to advocate. I will wrap up by saying that I am mindful today of Mary Raftery of "States of Fear", a wonderful champion. I am mindful too of Christine Buckley, and the great life that she led by example, and yet she forgave in the end. She had a very difficult experience in Goldenbridge.

I want to thank the members of the committee. I particularly want to single out Deputy Cairns, an exceptional, brave and courageous Deputy, Deputy Sherlock of the Labour Party, who championed this; and Deputy Funchion of Sinn Féin, the Cathaoirleach of the committee. I read again early this morning the transcripts of the Final Stages in the Dáil, and by golly they were hard-hitting and challenging, and rightly so. I hope that people in these Houses, through our future roads that we may travel in politics, can collaborate and channel a path to revisit the issues that we have started. So long ago, we were told we were on a hiding to nothing. At least, we are some of the way there.

I will finish by saying that yes, people are going to benefit from redress from this. Yes, I do not want to stop them doing that. They are entitled to that and I hope they get it before any more of them die. However, I will not be supporting the Bill. I will tell the Minister here, without hearing any more, that I cannot support a Bill that abandons people on those key issues that we raised in this regard.