Victor Boyhan (Independent)

First, I welcome our guests, particularly our two colleagues in the front who have been here many times in many other debates. I thank the Minister and her predecessor for their engagement on this.

In preparing for today, I was conscious I wanted to open with a positive line of thanks to several people. To fill in for those new people who may not have met me or know about me, I speak with some knowledge and lived experience of this issue. I lived in three State institutions in my life as a child. Therefore, there were different experiences with which I bring some lived experience and there is no substitute for that. It was only when I was coming up the stairs that I remembered it was 27 years ago that Mary Raftery, the author of "States of Fear" and now deceased, came to my home to discuss a whole range of issues around institutional care and the emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children within the State, both in the care of the State and the church. We need to be very careful. It is too easy to demonise the church and the religious. I wish to pay particular tribute to them. I am a member of a faith community - the Church of Ireland - by birth, heritage and choice and a supporter of the faith communities. I am not prepared to contribute to a negative conversation about all of them, because this was clearly not the case.

I give thanks to the many unsung heroes and decent men and women of religious vocation in every denomination who gave their best, were always good and who put children and people in their care to the fore. They have been forgotten in the narrative of abuse of children within our State. I thank Mary Raftery, from the "States of Fear" for her remarkable programme. I thank Christine Buckley from Goldenbridge and "Dear daughter"; the former councillor and mayor of Clonmel, Michael O'Brien, who gave a compelling and personal testimony of his life; and John Bowman from RTÉ "Question and Answers" who said Mr. O'Brien's words had "a greater impact than any other contribution from the audience in the history of the programme." What an endorsement from John Bowman.

I think of Philomena Lee and Philomena's Law which is currently going through Westminster as we speak. It is being discussed how she championed the rights of mothers and children who were born or found themselves in mother and baby homes. I give thanks to Catherine Corless for her great work and advocacy in Tuam. In a matter of days, we will see the first exhumations coming from there which is a story in itself. I think of our former councillor Damien O'Farrell whose experience in the Christian Brothers is well documented and went through the processes. He is a key advocate in Sage Advocacy, which the Minister has talked about. I also think of Conrad Bryan from the Association of Mixed Race Irish, AMRI, who has spoken in these Houses many times about the prejudice and challenges of children who were mixed race in the fifties, sixties and seventies, where they found no place. I think of Senator Colm O'Gorman and his experience of abuse at the hands of Father Seán Fortune in the Wexford diocese - again, all documented and in the public realm - and how he set up One in Four to champion and advocate for people and how courageous that was of him and the price.

There are many others but I cannot let today go without thinking of our own Samantha Long, Senator McDowell's PA - who was only on the Joe Duffy show and the Late Late Show in the past two weeks - and how she has championed the rights of survivors. She works with us on these corridors of power as a constant reminder and advocate for what happened to women, children and families at the hands of the Church and State. All overcame many obstacles to reveal the serious levels of historic abuse in Ireland's institutions. They battled courageously against successive governments who wished to suppress the secrets they were committed to revealing. How remarkable that was.

Their stories shook the country to its core, shedding light on the harrowing physical and sexual abuse suffered by children under the care - or the supposed care - of the religious orders, the non-religious and industrial schools and places of detention. Thankfully the floodgates were irrevocably opened and they can never be shut. We are making progress but there is more to be done. A public apology was issued, as the Minister said, by Bertie Ahern on behalf of the State. We had the Ryan Commission report and a subsequent public apology from the then Uachtarán na hÉireann, Mary McAleese. We then had another apology from the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. The apologies were made and there was an acceptance that the State had an absolute responsibility.

Going back to Mary Raftery and the conversation we had 27 years ago in my home, she went on to make the programme to open up, empower and allow people to share their stories. It is not easy to talk about your personal experience. People come up to you and they say "did your family not want you? What were the circumstances?" There were many circumstances for all of us while we were in care. We had to live with that and go around with the shame and the guilt. We could have if we chose to but we abandoned that and decided we could do other things with our lives. My past has motivated and politicised me. The greatest day of my life was coming into this parliament to be an advocate. Did I think, as a young child in 1961 right up to the seventies, that I would be elected to my council? As a matter of fact, my happiest day was being elected to my council in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. Going in that door, a door I had gone through for years to receive hospitality and was now back as a member and then I came to this parliament. Where you have conviction, you move on. My experience politicised me and I hope I keep it under a certain amount of fine tuning because it is so closely connected to the person that it is an emotional tie. I will never give up advocating for justice and helping people along the way.

Mary Raftery went on to produce "Cardinal Secrets", the investigation into the clerical child sex abuse in our Dublin diocese. In 2008, she reported on the medical malpractice and interference of bodily integrity of people at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and RTÉ "Prime Time" covered that programme. Back again in 2011, "Behind the Walls" was Raftery's last production which highlighted the appalling conditions of abuse in our Irish psychiatric hospitals. A tireless, brave and selfless woman, Mary Raftery died exhausted in St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin on 10 January 2012 at the age of 54. It is said she filled the elusive ambition of most journalists; she made a difference.

I thank RTÉ, especially "Prime Time", "Questions and Answers" and "Prime Time Investigates". That is public broadcasting at its very best. Last week, we saw it again when it highlighted the issues in nursing homes. What a great credit it is to our national broadcaster, our public broadcasting, that beams the truth into the homes of us all. It is important to acknowledge that.

I am conscious of my time. I have read the Dáil transcripts and noted the arguments for and against. I noted what the Minister said and the voting record of the Members. No doubt we will have some debate here next week. Many have said - including the Minister - we cannot undo the past. I say it is within our power to assist and make a difference, to help and give a helping hand and to collaborate with the Church and State. I appeal to the Church - and that includes the Church of Ireland in which I am an active member by choice - and all the denominations that they must come to the table and give money forward. An indemnity scheme was entered into and - in my view - it might not have been enough but a deal is a deal. The leaders of all the Churches in this country, including my own, must cough up and pay up. They have a moral responsibility. They cannot talk about transparency, justice and equality with all credibility if they will not come to the table with Government to support it.I will make some simple requests. I do not want to come in and clog up the Oireachtas next week with a whole load of amendments that will all be voted against with the Whip applied, etc. I understand the political process and that it is not personal. The Minister and all of us understand that, too, so what will I ask for? I ask that special support be given to the special advocate, Ms Patricia Carey. She has done amazing work. I have read her reports. She does not report directly to the Minister, but she reports to another Minister. Her work is exceptional. She has been in touch with us. There is a meaningful role for her. She has engaged with many people I know and I know the powerful impact she has had on their lives, so I ask the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to engage and consider that.

I am delighted to hear of the Minister's support for Sage Advocacy. In particular, I mention the former councillor, Mr. Damian O'Farrell. It is great to see that important work because it is about the future and helping people to navigate the rest of their lives.

I ask for a just redress scheme for those excluded, not within the parameters of this scheme because it is too late. The Minister can call it what she will, but let us see that we assist people with housing - give them special status on their applications with housing points, because that is important - health, pensions and medical support.

The boarded-out men and women of this State, many of whom have been my guests in these Houses, were boarded out illegally and were slave labourers. They lived in cattle sheds, drank water out of cattle troughs and lived off the clippings that were left from the main kitchens of the farm houses. They are still alive. Many are in the west, but also in other places. Let us reach out to them. Let us help them. We do not need legislation. We just need humanity and practicality.

There are the children who were born to multiracial families that were away and then - the Cathaoirleach has great commitment on this - the forgotten Irish, the Irish walking the streets of London, Birmingham, Liverpool and further afield who have no place to come back to. Ireland is a very different place now, thankfully. They need help. In fairness to our ambassador in London, amazing work is going on. I urge the Minister to reach out to the existing agencies and support these people.

We have never addressed the issue of the drug trials. I lived in an institution where drug trials took place. There is no dispute over it. Micheál Martin spoke at great length in both Houses about this. Drug trials were carried out on children in this State and no compensation has been given. It is accepted that it happened. We have the necessary documentation about these reports. SmithKline and the Wellcome Foundation were involved. It has all been documented. We must give the people who were impacted justice. A former Minister, Mr. Alan Shatter, spoke to me at the time and talked about the right to bodily integrity enshrined in our Constitution. We owe it to the people, to the children and their families. They were used without parental consent. No one seems to know under what loco parentisthey stood. They were used as guinea pigs for vaccines. It was wholly wrong and it must be revisited.

I will finish on that. I thank the Minister for her time. I want us to work together on practical measures. Let us not tie ourselves up in any more words or more sheets of legislation but commit to a working agenda with Sage Advocacy and the great advocate Patricia Carey and help people, most of whom are now in their 70s, to finish their last days with the dignity, respect, love and affection they should have had long ago. If we do that, we can put our hands on our hearts and say we are really repentant and that we will do something for these people to ensure their last days in this life have a little comfort, the comfort they rightly deserve.