I do not even know where to begin. I will start by saying that I am sick to the pit of my stomach at the decision this morning to grant planning for apartments on the Bessborough site. Approval has been given for the building of 106 apartments there. We absolutely need to oppose this. The Taoiseach needs to come out of the woodwork on this issue. He cannot hide behind a planning process any more. The State should step in to compulsorily purchase this site.

We are putting shame on top of shame when it comes to survivors and their families. The whole country colluded against these women. Some 19,000 women, babies and infants passed through this site and the country as a whole acted like shame was justice. The shame lies with the State, however. This is Micheál Martin’s second time as Taoiseach. This is happening in his constituency of Cork South-Central. He needs to act on this issue. He needs to come out today and make a statement on the matter.

He needs to make a plan to compulsorily purchase this site. It should be in public ownership. It is a site of conscience, historical importance and education and, above all, it is a memorial place. We know there are remains of babies in this site. We cannot allow apartments to go ahead. Can Senators imagine if we built apartments over Tuam? We see what happened in Tuam and what was uncovered. Can Senators imagine if we had concreted over that? That is what we are looking at, potentially, in Bessborough.

I will stand with survivors. I will not stop campaigning in relation to this. Everybody in Ireland now needs to come out and support these women, their families, the survivors and those affected. We need a collective response. We need all eyes now on this. We need Senators to speak to their political parties in relation to it. We need cross-party support. We need the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to come out on this issue. They have both made statements on it in the past. We do not need words; we need action.