Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I express my thanks to the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, for his service to the State and to the Government. He has done amazing work and can hold his head up with pride. He has achieved much, and it is a time to be gracious and thankful for his very considered leadership. He went out on a limb and took risks and has to be admired for that. He got many issues over the line. We do not get everything over the line, but he can be very proud of his achievements.

I want to raise the issue of the mother and baby redress scheme. The Acting Leader knows that the scheme opened for applications yesterday. With some regret and a great sense of sadness, I remind the House that the majority of Senators did not support the removal of the six-month stay requirement to ensure that all eligible children, including those who were adopted, boarded out and fostered, would be recognised and included in the mother and baby redress scheme. I have championed that cause since I came in here seven years ago. I ask again that Members on all sides go back to their parliamentary parties and engage with their ministerial colleagues to see if we can revisit this matter, because, to be precise, 24,000 people have been left out of the scheme according to today's edition of The Irish Times. That is disappointing and a pity.

It should also be remembered that a very substantial number of children in this State were the subject of drug trials. That matter has never been resolved. There is ongoing litigation and correspondence. I am very much involved in that, so I know about it from personal experience. We need to address that. We can talk about families and cherishing the children of this country equally, but it is incumbent on us all to revisit this at another time and another opportunity to see if we can address the two things, including the children who were exposed, without any parental consent or any consent of their guardians, to very significant drug trials in this State in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and right up into the 1970s. I appeal to my colleagues that we would work collaboratively to see if we can revisit these particular issues.