Tá mo chuid smaointe inniu leo siúd a chaith am i dtithe na máthar agus na leanaí. Inniu, cuimhnímid orthu go léir. Is córas drochíde agus díghrádaithe a bhí ann. Tá an Taoiseach tar éis leithscéal a ghabháil ar son an Stát, ach tá na chéad chéimeanna eile ríthábhachtach.

Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions for the survivors of mother and baby homes. After five years, the report of the commission was finally published and it was a very long process from which many survivors and their advocates felt excluded and ignored. Still, there was slight hope that publication of the report would bring truth and real accountability but for many those hopes were dashed. Sadly, many survivors are upset, deflated and angered by some of what they have read in the report. The assertion that there were no forced adoptions, that there exists little evidence of physical abuse and the overarching attempt to shift responsibility from the State and churches has left survivors shocked and some outraged. They are equally furious that, still, barriers to accessing basic documentation, including birth certificates, are placed in their way by the State. This circling of the wagons only adds to their trauma and exacerbates the failures of the State.

The purpose and the power of testimony is that it is given to be believed but many survivors feel that they were not heard and they were not believed. They know that they were coerced and forced to give up their children. They know that they were physically and mentally abused and whatever they read, they know that the State and churches are responsible for the violation of their most basic human rights.

It is plainly untrue to suggest that the whole of Irish society is responsible. That is a distortion of history. The truth is that these crimes were perpetuated by a reactionary Catholic church and a confessional State. Those in power outsourced their responsibility to the religious orders, the churches and to Protestant churches also as we know from the accounts of survivors from places like Bethany Home. This was done by the powerful to those who were vulnerable so any idea that we did this to ourselves is deeply insulting to victims and survivors and it is, frankly, a cop-out.

We know that the death rate of children born in these institutions was multiple of the infant mortality rate in Ireland at that time. Nine thousand children died in the 18 institutions covered by the report and as horrific as this is, it is but a glimpse of the true horror that would have been uncovered had the investigation received a wider remit to capture the vast network of institutions involved in the adoption system, all on the watch and with the connivance of and funded by the Irish State and successive Governments.

It is crucially important that provision is made for the excavation of sites at former homes throughout the State. Many women and families know that their children and relatives are buried on the grounds but they cannot pinpoint exactly where so these mothers must be afforded the human dignity of reclaiming the remains of their children to ensure they can also claim ownership of their individual stories and experiences.

Now is the time for State and church as perpetrators of these abuses to issue formal apologies and take responsibility for the horrific violations. I suggest that a good and perhaps an appropriate point for the current Administration to start is to afford the respect and dignity due to single parent families who as we know to this day remain marginalised and poor and are often regarded as the low-hanging fruit when the budgets get tight and the so-called tough decisions have to be made.

There has to be full redress and compensation and the rights of survivors and adopted people to access their own information must be realised. The importance of that cannot be overstated.

We would not have reached this point if it was not for the dedicated and selfless actions of countless people, survivors and advocates. Niall Meehan's work in uncovering the deaths and the mortality rate at the Bethany Home was landmark but it is to Catherine Corless that perhaps we owe the greatest debt. She uncovered the remains of 800 babies in a mass unmarked grave in Tuam.

The lived experiences documented within the report amount to a devastating catalogue of heartbreak, misery and the violation of basic human rights so I want to acknowledge the Taoiseach's apology to victims and survivors today on behalf of the State. It is something that they have waited a long time to hear but it is not true to say that what was witnessed was simply a failure of empathy and compassion in Irish society, although God knows that is true.

More profoundly, it was an abuse of power. It was the ultimate abuse of authority. It was brutality inflicted on women and girls, and on the poor in particular.

The value of any sincere apology is always found in the actions that follow. In this, victims and survivor are crystal clear that they want meaningful action and they want to be involved in formulating the State's approach. A good starting point would be to address the fact that the work of the commission covers just 18 institutions, whereas the Clann Project submitted a list of at least 182 institutions, individuals and agencies involved in adoption, informal adoption and other forms of forced family separation. The apology today must be understood to extend to the women and children who went through all of these institutions, including county homes, children who were boarded out, often in circumstances of indentured servitude, and those who were illegally adopted. So far, successive Governments have refused to progress the detailed recommendations of the Mother and Baby Home Collaborative Forum. These, alongside the recommendations of the Clann Project, must be advanced. The Taoiseach must also deliver on his commitment to create the national archive of institutional, adoption and other care-related records while ensuring the proper implementation of EU GDPR rights by all controllers of institutional, adoption and other care-related records.

In addition to its moral obligation to survivors, the State has numerous human rights duties under international law, including access to social services and redress. This means a redress scheme that can be accessed without unnecessary red tape and that the age profile of survivors and families be taken into account. Victims have rightly pointed out that any complicated process would only serve to delay and re-traumatise them. Everything that happens now must be about acknowledging the full extent of the wrongdoing without qualification. A real duty of care from the Government is expected now more than ever. With this in mind, the deliberate leaking of parts of the report was a disgraceful attempt to manage this story. There is a very serious case to be answered in this regard.

The legacy of mother and baby homes is one of shameful crimes perpetrated against women and children by the State, the churches and other institutions. Women were abused and forced to work without pay. Children died of malnutrition, untreated illness and neglect. Some were used as guinea pigs in drug and vaccine trials. It is wrong to use the word "home" in respect of these institutions. A home is somewhere where one is safe, loved and belongs. These institutions were immoral prisons. There was no love, kindness or care. Our job is to ensure that the survivors now feel from us that love, dignity, and the protection of a real home. Modern Ireland must step up to the mark in providing what the Ireland of the past stole from them: the truth and justice, and the full protection and rigour of the law.

I want to conclude with the words of a good friend of mine, Joan McDermott, who was imprisoned in Bessborough for eight months. She was made to cut the grass of the grounds with scissors. Joan gave birth to a baby boy whose name is David. He was taken from her without her consent or her knowledge. She did not see him again for five long decades. She said:

When I saw my son for the first time in 50 years, he made the most profound statement. He asked me "mam, how old am I really?" He did not know how old he was. He had no birth certificate. He had never been abroad. He has a birth cert now. You and I take these things for granted.

For Joan, for David, for the tens of thousands of women robbed of their futures, for the children robbed of their childhoods, for those who died behind those high walls and iron gates and who were buried in unmarked graves, and for those who made it out and survived to tell the harrowing tale, let today, though imperfect and unfinished, be the start of the final length of the long road to justice. This is not over.

Today, as we speak about the mother and baby institutions and the report that was published yesterday, I pay tribute to and commend all of the women and children, many of whom are now adults, who heroically came forward to share their stories. They fought with courage and determination and did not give up. In recent years I have had the privilege of getting to know many people who are survivors of mother and baby homes, including women who had their babies stolen from them and children born into the homes who were denied a relationship with their birth mother. Through many conversations, one common message always comes through, that nobody within the State was willing to listen to them when they were forced into these institutions, and since then, they have been failed by the State on many occasions, including by this Government. Real, meaningful consultation is something that survivors, their families and their representative groups have continuously sought.

When speaking about this matter, I am cognisant that we need to allow survivors and their families the time to read the report in detail and to reflect on its contents. We need to make sure to listen to their voices. We also remember the many women and children who lost their lives in these institutions. I have been contacted by a number of survivors who have not been able to access the report. They are not technologically savvy. They felt they were going to get copies of it in the post. I urge that this be followed up on because I feel it is the least they deserve.

Mother and baby homes were not homes, they were detention centres. A home is somewhere where one should feel safe, loved and protected, not a place where one is tortured, imprisoned and forced to give birth in the most appalling conditions, often without medical support or even basic pain relief. These walls hid torture, deprivation and humiliation on a colossal scale. Human rights did not exist in these centres. As a mother, daughter, sister and Irish citizen, I cannot countenance this cruelty. The cries of children and tortured mothers were ignored and trivialised by cruel nuns and others who were involved in these institutions, who ran the institutions as if they were prisons.

While both yesterday and today are historic points, the journey to truth and equality is not over. Time and again, we have failed survivors and their families, most recently in October last year, when they were appallingly treated by this Government as they attempted to rush through ill thought-out legislation. This caused significant anger and upset for survivors. When will we learn that survivors need to be listened to? They do not need our sympathy. They need and deserve our action. We must set out a path to genuine consultation and the Government must make good on its commitment to repair the damage done to the relationship. I sincerely hope that the Government's commitment to redress is not simply lip service and that real engagement is entered into with all survivors and adoptive rights groups. Survivors need assurances that their rights will be vindicated, especially their right to unconditional access to birth certificates. Their families need a clear statutory right to their own care or adoption file and to records concerning a family member who died in care or when adopted.

It is my fervent wish that the courage shown by survivors in coming forward is met by action from the Government, as the State has failed them. The State did not listen, did not care and it turned a blind eye. Now the State must accept responsibility and come good for survivors. Please let the consultation be meaningful and genuine. Please ensure that people get a copy of the report and that their voices are heard.

Before I start my contribution, I want to put on the record of the Dáil that I, along with many others, think that the leaking of this report caused an awful lot of hurt and distress and should not have happened. I would like the Government - and indeed all governments - to think about this. It is not the first time that this has happened. The Scally report into the CervicalCheck programme was also leaked. Both of these reports dealt with sensitive issues predominantly relating to women. These reports should not have been leaked. It has caused undue hurt.

I wrote to the Taoiseach stating that I would have preferred the Government to consult with all of the survivors' groups, the families and the victims, regarding when this apology would be made and the contents of it. The Government has made its decision and this is an important day. However, I would have thought that would have been the best way to deal with the apology.

The report of the mother and baby homes investigation tells the tale of an Ireland that we have left behind, yet it is not in our distant past. Reading the report, one would think that it details events of a long time ago, but it does not. The last mother and baby home shut its doors in 1998, which was 23 years ago. I am sure that there are young people in their 20s who are watching this debate, who will find it hard to get their heads around the fact that they were born into an Ireland that still cruelly locked women away behind the high walls of such institutions. Although diminished, in 1998 there were still some perceptions in society regarding unmarried and single mothers that in some way there was something to be ashamed of. It may seem as though 1998 is like a long way from the Ireland of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, that was so inherently anti-women in its culture and laws, but it is not that long ago at all. Each and every one of us knows many people who have been adversely affected by the shameful actions of our State, institutions, and politicians. All of us who serve in public life should apologise for our predecessors, and for the fact that the Legitimacy Act was passed by the Dáil in 1931. That it was the law of the land is horrendous. All of the political entities that served in governments should apologise for allowing this to happen. When this State was founded and within the first few years of its inception, there were warnings about the mortality rate in these homes and institutions. Nothing was done, a blind eye was turned, and it continued for another 60 years. Politically, we are all at fault. The State is at fault; we are at fault; institutions are at fault. The women, children and their families share no blame at all. The institutions and the Catholic Church have an awful lot to answer for. We must continue to look at the relationship between the State and religious institutions.

Over the coming days we will hear much about the women who were forced into these homes, but not much about the men involved. These women who ended up in the mother and baby homes did not end up there on their own. Many were raped and some were the victims of incest. Some of the babies were very much wanted and were born out of wedlock to couples who were very much in love, but our society at the time did not approve of this love. Many women were put into these institutions to uphold the reputation of men of a more privileged class and to hide their societal embarrassment. Our society went along with this and it is our collective shame.

We all remember as clear as day the finding of remains at a former mother and baby home in Tuam following the tireless work of Catherine Corless, who is a hero to this nation. The publication of this report is another step in the uncomfortable process of confronting the hidden shame of our nation. It must be noted that the report only concerns 14 institutions and homes. The Clann Project is correct that we must go much deeper. The hidden lives of women who were subjected to devastating neglect and abuse were shamed for their so-called "sins". For too long, people were determined to keep these stories hidden, but now that these stories are out there, they will hopefully bring some solace.

The Labour Party has long believed that it would be wrong to suggest that the publication of this report will be part of a healing process, because it has come too late for many of the women and children involved. There was no chance at life for the children who needlessly died in infancy, like Anne, the young baby who died in 1968 in Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, very close to where I am from. She was the daughter of a friend of mine. For others who left the homes and died before the State embarked on this process, there has been no acknowledgement of their suffering to date. We cannot bring them back. Nonetheless, I hope this report will serve to belatedly put some of the truth on the record. We are past the capacity to put all of it on the record, but we must do everything that we can.

More than 1,000 survivors bravely gave their testimonies to the commission. It has not been an easy process for them but their determination to open society's eyes to what happened behind the high walls of these institutions deserves a serious amount of gratitude from us all. Careful consideration and reflection must be given to this 3,000-page report and 57,000 children passed through the 14 homes featured in the report. Some survivors groups, including the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, have expressed disappointment with what they see as the incompleteness of the report, which does not engage with the more expansive issue of State-sponsored, forced or coerced separation of mothers and babies. The Labour Party joins the call of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties for a separate investigation to examine the entire system of secret adoption and family separation, to add to our knowledge about this shameful history and to build on the findings made in today's report about the 14 mother and baby homes under investigation. We should also talk openly about the children who were sold into slavery as domestic servants and farm labourers, because that is what happened - they were sold into slavery.

Following the passage of the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters) Records, and Another Matter, Act 2020, the Labour Party called for increased supports for survivors and adopted people. Once sufficient time has been given to considering the contents of this report, we must return to that critical matter without delay.

Writing about her experience in a mother and baby home and life after it in the Irish Independent this week, my colleague, and former Tánaiste, Joan Burton said that robust adoption tracing legislation must be a key priority. She said:

As a politician it has been my privilege and responsibility to be a campaigner for key social changes in Ireland — divorce, marriage equality, and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. But the right of adopted people to their own information has never been conceded. It is amazing that this legacy remains in an era of so much progressive change. I do hope that the commission will address this astonishing omission.

This issue needs to be dealt with. Joan Burton is a former Tánaiste and her backstory is incredible.

We also need to ensure that all archives relating to social services provided by the religious institutions are nationalised. That is a very important point. They provided a service in lieu of the State. We need to nationalise all of their archives in order that everything can be preserved. In regard to redress, we cannot undo what happened before. We need to ensure, this time around, that the religious institutions make their contribution to redress for the families and women affected. Once they agree to that, or when they are made to agree, if they do not make their contribution, we will pass legislation - I will draft it myself - to enable us to take their assets and ensure they make that contribution. We cannot go through what happened in this country before in terms of the institutions not making their contribution.

This week is just another part of a much-needed conversation on a dark part of our nation's history. I am sure it will not be the last time we discuss issues like this. The survivors need time to grapple with the recommendations. They need a huge amount of time. Some of them have not had the capacity or the will to look at the recommendations yet. Those who have shone a light on the darkness that is associated with this period in our history, such as Catherine Corless and others, all need time to look at this report.

The Deputy's time is up.

I pay particular tribute to Ms Corless, Joan Burton, my friends, Rosie and Mags McKinney, for sharing their story - I know they are not happy but I will work with them - people like Gerry, whose aunt bought him out of Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, my neighbour, Theresa Collins, and everybody else who has worked tirelessly to get to this stage. Today, we are at the beginning of a journey into our past in dealing with this issue. We have opened many doors and we need to open many more in regard to this issue.

We are way over time.

Most of all, we need to provide supports for these women and their families into the future. It is through those supports and showing some love for them that we can truly, as a collective, say we are sorry.

The publication of the report into the mother and baby homes marks a hugely important point in our country's history and the path towards justice for all our citizens. While the women and children in the homes and institutions have never had any doubt about the abuses and horrors that took place behind their doors, this report now brings together many of their stories and lived experiences and lays them bare for us all to see. The injustices and horrors that were forced on women by the hands of the State and the church, hands that should have been there to help, support and take care of them, are a stark reminder of our dark side. The report was harrowing to read, but for that to be one's actual life experience, for that to have been one's introduction to motherhood, a period that should be joyful, must have been devastating.

I would like to acknowledge the bravery of the survivors, their children and survivor groups and, in particular, the tireless work of Catherine Corless and Philomena Lee. These were women who never stopped fighting for their own children and the children of others. Their strength shines through the pages of the report. I would also like to remember those who did not survive to see today, including the babies, women and families who are not around to hear this debate, discussion and apology. I say to them that I am sorry.

In his response to the report yesterday, the Taoiseach stated:

The regime described in the report was not imposed on us by any foreign power. We did this to ourselves, as a society.

This is a sentiment and theme, unfortunately, that runs through the commission report. The report talks about how institutions provided refuge when the families of women did not. A refuge is somewhere of safety. It states that there is no evidence that the women were forced to enter mother and baby homes by the church or State authorities. It says that women were admitted to mother and baby homes and county homes because they failed to secure the support of their family and the father of their child. I would like to point out that nearly 12% of the women who went through the doors of those homes were children. They were raped. To expect that they would be the ones to ensure they were looked after by their families is not acceptable.

The report, in several instances, and the Taoiseach, in many of his comments yesterday, fail to acknowledge fully that the fundamental responsibility of protection of its citizens lies with the State and that the culture of a society is moulded and shaped by the most powerful institutions of the State, namely, the government and the church. A State and church which operated hand in glove to implement a State policy of shame, blame and misogyny was one that facilitated and oversaw the horrific treatment of women and children in these homes. There can be absolutely no doubt that the State's policy was one of shame. The State established, funded and regulated these institutions and it outsourced its responsibility to religious organisations. The buck stops with the State, and the State needs to own that responsibility.

I welcome many of the points that have been made here today. However, until the Government's first reaction to an instance like this is not to say, "Well, we were all complicit", then we really have much more work to do. This report represents only a step in the long journey that these women and their families are taking. The survivors need time to digest and take on board the report and its recommendations and that may take weeks. I ask the Government, please, to listen to what the survivors are saying and to be led by their needs and their voices. They have clearly outlined the next steps towards a restorative justice process. It starts with legislating for full and unfettered access to their records. Proper implementation of EU GDPR rights will be required. I maintain that very little legislative change is needed to cover the GDPR requirements. The GDPR applies as standard. Every single person in this country has rights to their own information and that needs to be part of the Government's response in this matter. It must not spend another year looking at what new legislation we need to implement. The legislation is in place; the Government just needs to apply it.

The church needs to release its records on survivors and to co-operate in full. Survivors must be provided with a comprehensive redress and reparation scheme that meets their needs entirely. We must learn from the mistakes of the past and the past redress schemes, many of which caused further trauma to survivors. The re-traumatisation of survivors must stop now. Putting survivors front and centre of the process will be crucial to its success and to providing the security and certainty many survivors need at this time. These are the things we can do. We cannot go back and change what happened to the survivors and their families. We can only give them our most heartfelt apology, try to repair the trust, provide them with access to justice and support them as they continue on their path to healing. That must be the aim of the Government.

It is within our power to ensure that other vulnerable women and children do not experience such incredible disadvantage, discrimination and State-sponsored human rights abuses in today's Ireland. Women and children in this country still suffer because of the policies of the State. A total of 90,000 children live in consistent poverty in Ireland today. Some 4,000 children are homeless. More than 7,000 people live in direct provision. The latter has been described by many as the Magdalen laundries of contemporary Ireland. I want to make it absolutely clear that society does not condone the actions of this and previous Governments when it comes to the handling of these issues. Society wants the Government to fix them. It is within our power to make sure that whoever is Taoiseach in 20 years' time does not have to stand, as the Taoiseach is standing today, and apologise for the actions of his or her Government. The Taoiseach should use this moment to create a better way.

I also call on the Taoiseach to recognise the State’s failings, past and present and to listen to the survivors, to their asks and their needs. He needs to recognise what needs to improve and to commit to doing so without delay and to make those changes. Otherwise his apology today may amount to just another apology on top of one apology after another. I ask him to make it matter. Women and children deserve better and as one survivor, Sheila O’Byrne, put it yesterday, it is time to right the wrongs.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Today’s apology is welcome. It is decades overdue and comes after decades of silence, shame and misogynistic control and abuse perpetrated and facilitated by State authorities, the church and Government after Government.

Ireland’s history of using shame and fear to control women and their bodies is truly horrifying in its scale and impact. In 2018, I began knocking on doors for the abortion rights referendum in Cork South-West. I did not know what to expect or what kind of reception we would get. In every town and village, came story after story. Women, often in their 70s and 80s would stand outside and tell us about the girls and women who disappeared from their lives, such as their best friend from school, their cousin or their aunt who were abandoned, shamed and left at the mercy of the State and the church.

On those same nights, we would knock on another door to hear: “But if this comes in, what’s to stop the young ones" and "What’ll stop them from sleeping around every weekend and getting an abortion every Monday?” It is still here and has not left us. This is the fear of girls and women and this desire to control their lives and their bodies. The “we” narrative around this report needs to be addressed. Yes, society played a part, but this abuse was clearly facilitated and carried out by a powerful State and a powerful religious order which tolerated no opposition. This was a country that virtually outlawed sex outside marriage. This was public policy. There was no sex education, a ban on contraception, no access to abortion and virtual immunity for rapists.

Pregnancies were inevitable and when they happened, the girls and women were left with nowhere else to go except these institutions. In these, the worst forms of abuse and neglect were systematically carried out. The scale of infant deaths is incomprehensible; it borders on mass murder. Not only was the State aware of this, but it continued to fund and manage the homes and the religious orders profited from this horrendous cruelty and systemic abuse. That an organisation which facilitated the worst kinds of human rights violations imaginable still has any hand, act or part in our schools and hospitals is deeply disturbing.

Then, the Departments and church officials denied these realities, further abused survivors and opposed any chance of justice until the discovery of almost 600 babies buried in a septic tank in Tuam forced the Government to establish the commission.

There are no words for this cascade of misogyny, abuse and criminality perpetuated against women and their children. The last thing the survivors need is inadequate apologies from more men in positions of power. They deserve justice, genuine contrition from church and State and complete and unreserved redress. The shame used to control and incarcerate women and children for the so-called crime of getting pregnant was endemic in our society and was misplaced. It is time we re-direct the shame to where it belongs. Shame on the people who committed these horrendous crimes, on the religious orders which oversaw it and on successive Governments for facilitating and condoning it.

If we are to respond genuinely to this report, we must ensure survivors are given redress, that justice is vigorously pursued and that the people and organisations who committed these crimes are pursued and prosecuted. Shame on us all if we settle for anything less.