Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The scourge of institutional abuse is a stain on our collective history. As former Bethany Home resident, Patrick Anderson McQuoid quoted in The Journal yesterday said, it is the "shame" of Ireland. It is also shameful that Patrick will be denied redress by the Minister. Under the auspices of the State, thousands endured pain, abuse, trauma and neglect. This suffering produced a lasting impact, not only on their lives, but also on the lives of those close to them. There is no doubt that survivors deserve redress and supports to counter the profound detrimental impact residential institutional abuse had on them. Despite the lip service paid by the Government, survivors have waited too long for the recognition and justice that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael denied them for decades. Under the Bill before the Dáil, many will be forced to continue to wait.

Survivors have been explicit in their requests. They have campaigned for decades to break the silence. This Bill does not go far enough. Many key requests of survivors have not been included. Just four of the committee's 29 recommendations on redress have been included in the Bill. Not only are definitive timelines for service provision absent, for example, but provisions that managed to make it into the Bill are far from exhaustive; rather they are narrow and partial and for many survivors, they represent nothing more than a superficial exercise. What is worse, thousands of survivors of institutional abuse continue to be excluded from the Government's totally inadequate attempt at redress. They have been overlooked and ignored, despite promises by the Government that it would finally make things rights. Many feel traumatised all over again. This indefensible scandal is simply not good enough.

In preparing the Bill, the Government carried out a process of consultation with survivors and survivor-led groups over a number of years, including a survivor-led independently facilitated consultative forum. Despite this, it has ignored them extensively in this Bill. A member of the forum, Sidney Herdman, formerly of the Westbank Orphanage, is even being denied redress by the Minister. This Bill is a tool to hide the fact that the views of survivors are being ignored yet again. Why does the Government continue to ignore their suffering? Victims who placed their trust in a legislative process have been let down yet again. Let us consider the former residents of the Westbank Orphanage in Greystones, County Wicklow. This Bill constitutes another betrayal. The independent mother and baby home commission of inquiry recommended twice that the orphanage be included in the residential institutions redress board scheme similar to Artane Industrial School for Senior Boys, St. Joseph’s Industrial School for Senior Boys in Letterfrack, St. Vincent’s Industrial School in Goldenbridge, Smyly homes and other notorious institutions. What is the Government prepared to do for these sexually, physically and emotionally abused former child residents? Are they being left behind primarily because a Protestant-run institution has to jump through more hoops to be accepted as a State responsibility? When will the Government be prepared to treat all survivors equally? This needs to happen.

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