Last year, a commission of inquiry was established into the Tuam mother and baby home following the outstanding work of historian Catherine Corless, who has been instrumental in uncovering and revealing a very dark period of and dark side to our history. As the Taoiseach knows, the commission's investigators have uncovered a significant number of infant and toddler remains. We now know that up to 796 infants and toddlers lost their lives in this home and were buried in unmarked and unknown graves. There is an enormous sense of shame that such a phenomenon was allowed to happen in this country, with such appalling treatment of women and of children. The State, the church and, indeed, wider society remain culpable for the extraordinary cruelty visited upon many young women and, obviously, upon infants and children, who were considered to be lesser people within society.

In many ways, the ongoing work of the commission must also inform the current and future treatment of children. As I said, it reveals an appalling attitude in regard to women, to the stigma that was associated with becoming pregnant outside of marriage and to the treatment of children. It is also revealing in the context of the phenomenon of institutionalisation and the dangers of institutionalisation as a means of addressing issues. We had it in our mental health institutions for decades and in the industrial schools and, as is now clear, in the mother and baby homes.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that he intends to issue a formal State apology on behalf of all of us and on behalf of the State to all of those affected by such practices? Does the Taoiseach agree that there is a need for a dignified commemorative memorial so that these children can be remembered with dignity? Will the Taoiseach confirm that there is a need for the widening of the scope of the inquiry to cover mother and baby homes across the country? Above all, there is a need for lessons to be learned from this in terms of how we deal with children.

As we speak, 2,500 children are homeless or living in hotels. We know that there is a chronic lack of social workers to deal with children at risk in our society. We know that there is a chronic lack of therapists - be it speech and language therapists, physiotherapists or occupational therapists - right across the country, as well as a lack of psychologists. Most Deputies are frustrated by the long waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, for young children who need access to mental health facilities now. In the midst of all of the outrage and genuine shock and shame, there needs to develop a resolve on behalf of Government and this Oireachtas to, once and for all, comprehensively address the shortcomings and gaps in services for children in this country by comprehensively investing in such services. That is the only way to deal with the list of current shortages I have outlined. Does the Taoiseach agree with that?

Tuam is not just a burial ground, it is a social and cultural sepulchre. That is what it is. As a society in the so-called "good old days", we did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings, we dug deep and deeper still to bury our compassion, our mercy and our humanity itself. No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns' care. We gave them up maybe to spare them the savagery of gossip, the wink-and-elbow language of delight in which the "holier than thous" were particularly fluent. We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability. Indeed, for a while it seemed as if in Ireland our women had the amazing capacity to self-impregnate. For their trouble, we took their babies and gifted them, sold them, trafficked them, starved them, neglected them or denied them to the point of their disappearance from our hearts, our sight, our country and, in the case of Tuam and possibly other places, from life itself.

We are all shocked now. If the fruit of her religious and social transgression could be discarded, what treatment was meted out to the transgressor herself? We had better deal with this now because if we do not, some other Taoiseach will be standing here in 20 years saying, "If only we knew then, if only we had done then". What will be his or her then is our now. Now, we do know. Now, we have to do. All of us in this House must do so together.

This commission of investigation has completed some of its work and has carried out the physical excavations on this chamber of horrors in Tuam. What is now needed is some reflection on the processes required. There is an independence for the coroner. There is an independence for the Garda. There is a duty in terms of the local authority. Obviously, those whose siblings and families were affected are distraught. There is a role for the coroner in north Galway to consider what steps may be necessary and appropriate in accordance with his statutory functions. The commission has not made formal findings yet. What it has done is complete the physical excavation, so we now know that there are substantial remains of very young children in this spot.

We need to have some little time to reflect on the issues that Deputy Micheál Martin has raised. Clearly, the fact that we set up a Department of Children, a Ministry for children, the Child and Family Agency and held a referendum to enshrine to rights of children in Bunreacht na hÉireann speaks for the direction in which the Government wishes to go.

I would like to think I could answer "Yes" to all the Deputy's questions now but I respect the independence of both the Garda and the coroner in respect of the progress that must be made in the next steps. Yes, we are all shocked. Yes, let us do something about it then.

The real fitting memorial to those dead children would be resolve to ensure that, in the future, people will not look back on today and say the State did not act comprehensively. There are effectively 2,500 homeless children. I mean these remarks sincerely. With regard to mental health, there is not a Deputy who does not have a file containing the cases of a number of children with mental health challenges who are facing inordinately long waiting times to gain access to child and adolescent mental health services. We know that families of children with autism cannot avail of respite anymore. I have visited many disability centres and service providers. They are really frustrated beyond comprehension. They have essentially given up on getting any resources to deal with families who need respite and other services. We know about the therapies for children but they are not happening. Deputy Thomas Byrne will be tabling a motion tonight on the National Educational Psychological Service. There are many potential scandals arising right now and we should not be waiting for some future period or generation to shine a light on them in 20 years. It will simply be too late. There will be no point in shock and horror in 25 years if the State could have intervened now in respect all the services I have outlined, the absence of social workers, in particular, and the under-resourcing of Tusla in respect of young children and teenagers in real danger of physical and mental harm because of their particular circumstances.

There is an opportunity – I hate using that phrase – for a once-in-a-generation paradigm shift and to ask, before we do anything in the next budget, whether we can comprehensively deal with services for children. This would be an appropriate response in addition to everything else we must do in response to the revelations in Tuam.

Sure, I would like to think we could reflect seriously on this as the preparations for the economic statement of the Government and the preparation for budget 2018 begin. Of course, we spent many years trying to get agreement in respect of the National Maternity Hospital. It is now done and agreed. We have been 50 years talking about children's facilities. I am glad the decisions have been made in respect of the National Children's Hospital.

Deputy Thomas Byrne was perfectly entitled and right to raise the issue of the psychological services. As the Minister will reply, clearly the number of special classes has doubled since 2011, from 548 to 1,153. The number of resource teachers has increased by 41%, from 5,200 to over 7,500 now. In 2011, the number of SNAs was increased by a further 22%, from 10,500 to 13,115. These are very substantial improvements in the issues that surround children in that particular area.

The Deputy mentioned waiting lists, child and adolescent mental health services, homelessness and mental health. These are all serious issues. That is why, in respect of homelessness, there has been investment at an unprecedentedly large scale to make what we desire happen. Deputy Micheál Martin is only too well aware of the reasons for the collapse of the entire construction sector. No matter what we do, there still has to be supply to cater for numbers. In 2030 and beyond, we will have to provide a further 5,000 homes and there will be an increase in the population of 1 million. Where are they going to live and work and how are we going to transport them? Together, we can look at the bigger issues of this country given what happened in the shadows, in the limbo, even in my own years on this earth, which number slightly more than those of Deputy Micheál Martin. Clearly, these are issues that were in the shadows and limbo-land for years.

I commend Catherine Corless for her painstaking work, which has unveiled another sad legacy of the past in this country. I wish to deal with this and I hope that when the process has been completed with the coroner, the Garda, the local interests and the local authority the Oireachtas can focus, for once and for all, on dealing with these sad legacies of the past that unfortunately impinge on the sensitivities and personal lives of people through their tragedy and on the siblings who have had to bear with it.