There is an ugly and frenzied rush to push through legislation on the mother and baby homes. Imagine the optics of this for the hundreds and thousands of victims and their families that legislation is to be amended by Members of this House before 2 o'clock tomorrow when it has not even passed through the Seanad. This is utterly disrespectful to the Senators. The Tánaiste ticked me off some time ago about disrespecting Senators. He is disrespecting the Seanad and, indeed, this House by pushing through this legislation in a hurried manner. More important, however, it shows utter disrespect to the victims and their families. Whatever the rights and wrongs about way the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs wants to archive these files, we have not been given the time to look at it, talk about it and amend it properly. He is breaking all the rules of the Houses by rushing it through.

Will the Tánaiste please ensure that a minimum level of proper legislative scrutiny is given to this? I do not mean pre-legislative scrutiny but enough time for us to be able to amend it, it having been amended by the Senators. It is, to say the least, unseemly to the victims and their families and the Tánaiste, like all of us, has been inundated with emails. Imagine the panic and the disrespect they feel. Apologies are no good when the Tánaiste does this sort of thing.

I raised this issue here before and asked for the report to be published. We welcome the publication of the report of the mother and baby homes commission. I have spoken to many of the survivors and their families who are hurt that there is a risk their records will be locked away for 30 years. The survivors of these homes deserve to know the full truth of what went on and deserve to have an input on how their records are dealt with.

Members may remember last year dealing with the contentious Retention of Records Bill regarding the Ryan commission records. The Oireachtas education committee recommended that survivors who engaged and submitted their testimonies should have access to their own records. I ask the Tánaiste to listen to the thousands of survivors and their families who have contacted us over the past few days. Do not add further insult to what they have suffered by locking away their records for another 30 years. Change the legislation. Help those who are hurt, such as those who were in Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in my country of Tipperary and in other homes throughout the country who suffered horribly. There can be no more cover-ups and no more hiding away records about this shameful period in our history.

The business of the House is ordered by the Business Committee. It is not in my power to change that.

Everybody objected except the Government.

I am advised the legislation is being brought forward in the Seanad to provide urgent and critical legal clarity surrounding the future of a database compiled by the mother and baby homes commission. The Bill is being brought forward to preserve invaluable information and not to put it beyond reach, as is being reported. The Bill will make it possible for the database that has been compiled by the commission to be accessible under current legislation and to make it available for use under future birth information and tracing legislation.

The question was why is it being rushed.