I must now deal with a postponed division relating to amendment No. 1 to the motion regarding Mother and Baby Homes. On Thursday, 21 March, on the question that the amendment to the motion be agreed to, a division was claimed, and in accordance with Standing Order 70(2), that division must be taken now.
Mother and Baby Homes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire on Tuesday, 21 March 2017:
That Dáil Éireann:
- acknowledges that the discovery of bodies at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home has shocked the people of Ireland and brought considerable sadness and anger to Dáil Éireann;
- agrees that there are serious questions in relation to other mother and baby homes, particularly in the treatment, records and testimonies of survivors;
- recognises that since the formation of the State, mother and baby homes, industrial schools, county homes, Magdalene laundries and numerous other bodies and institutions were part of a systematic regime that resulted in the abuse and degradation of vulnerable women and their children and the State was complacent in allowing this to happen; and
- further recognises that, despite the high number of people who passed through homes and institutions and through the hands of various other bodies, the State has to date failed to initiate a meaningful process that would help to obtain the truth for survivors, nor has it provided a suitable forum that would allow the full story of these institutions and the system that underpinned them to be made public;
agrees that:
- a truth commission, involving international experts, should be established, that would be based on the principals of best practice from the truth processes in Chile, South Africa, Canada and Australia and would be developed in consultation with both victims and survivors groups;
- the purpose of a truth commission is to establish the truth of these institutions, to give the survivors the option to tell their testimony in a non-confrontational, non-adversarial manner and in either public or private, whichever they are at ease with; and
- its purpose is part of a wider process to identify the persons and institutions responsible for the systematic mistreatment and abuse of women and children within
these care homes and the system as a whole but is not a substitute for the justice system or future criminal proceedings should they be deemed necessary anywhere on the island of Ireland; and
further agrees that the truth commission shall:
- operate on a modular basis in order to ensure that older survivors are among the first to be heard;
- provide for public or private hearings, at the discretion of survivors, at suitable locations throughout the 32 counties where testimonies can be made;
- involve an advisory committee, including victims representatives;
- allow for testimonies from all survivors of care homes and their next of kin, without bias;
- ensure unfettered access to all information and documentation for all survivors, victims and next of kin of residential care homes, including to their information and
archival documentation;
- ensure hearings will include all Protestant mother and baby homes such as Bethany and Westbank mother and baby homes and all institutions, even if they are not included in the Government’s prescribed list;
- preserve the documentation at the Magdalene laundry site in Donnybrook, which will be made available to survivors;
- ensure representatives of the organisations responsible appear to provide testimony and answer questions in public;
- provide, where necessary, legal representation for survivors, with costs being covered by the State;
- as a matter of urgency, ensure that all mother and baby homes and county home sites are subject to an injunction preventing structural changes to or interference with land where exhumations may be necessary until the final report of the truth commission is published;
- allow for the prevention of any interference with relevant sites and all ongoing work on these sites shall cease immediately to facilitate a thorough forensic inspection;
- examine the circumstances of the women and children affected from a constitutional and human rights perspective, including the circumstances of exit for women and children, as well as consider related matters such as the forced labour taken from women, illegal adoptions, vaccine trials and any other such matter that the
commission sees as appropriate, taking the report of the interdepartmental group on mother and baby homes into account;
- consider the manner in which women or children were placed in these institutions, the role the State had in placing them within these institutions and the responsibility it bears for the treatment and welfare of children more generally within these institutions;
- have the power to compel witnesses to come before a truth commission;
- publish a series of interim reports to Dáil Éireann, on a bi-monthly basis, on the progress of the truth commission and its recommendations regarding redress,
identity and access to personal documents, responsibility of institutions, memorialisation, current welfare of survivors, access to courts and the Statute of
Limitations and all other information it considers relevant; and
- ensure that the recommendations of the interim and final reports will be expedited as quickly as possible.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:
recognises that the Government established a statutory Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters in February 2015, to provide a thorough objective account of what happened to vulnerable women and children in these homes during the period 1922 to 1998;
notes that the commission was established following a motion passed by Dáil Éireann on 28th January 2015 to approve the draft Government order for the establishment of the commission and its terms of reference;
acknowledges:
- the important and person-centred work to date of the independent commission;
- the considerable public disquiet and demand for a thorough and holistic understanding of events, experiences and responsibilities following the confirmation, by the commission, of the discovery of human remains on the site of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home; and
- the plight of Irish women and children who were in institutions in this country in the last century, equally affirms their resilience and agency as survivors and stands in solidarity with all former residents, their loved ones and campaigners;
agrees that the commission must be given the opportunity to complete its sensitive and person-centred investigations in the public interest to establish the facts of what happened in and around these homes and to issue its report in accordance with the legal framework under which it was established;
further notes the co-ordinated approach by Government Departments and agencies to respond to the discovery of human remains in Tuam and to engage with the local community and other parties with family connections in a sensitive and inclusive manner, recognising the dignity and equality to which all stakeholders are entitled;
further recognises that:
- the independent commission has the scope and power to examine a broad range of public concerns in relation to these institutions, to make a determination on their relevance to the central issues in question, and to make any recommendations to the Government which the commission deems appropriate;
- the commission’s terms of reference provide for a confidential committee forum to facilitate former residents of these Homes which may wish to provide accounts of their experience and to assist the commission to ground its work in the reality of the experience of mothers and children;
- a commission of investigation’s legal framework allows it to hold hearings in public where this would be in the interests of the investigation and fair procedures;
- major investigations have already been conducted into historical child abuse by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse which had a wide remit to inquire into the abuse of children in any place where children were cared for other than as members of their families; and
- the report of the interdepartmental committee into Magdalen laundries established the facts of State involvement with the laundries under the supervision of an independent chairperson;
further agrees that the three reports of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters which are due for completion by February 2018, namely, the social history report, the confidential committee report and the investigative report, are critically important in coming to terms with how Irish society responded to vulnerable single women and their children at a time when they most needed our support and assistance; and
welcomes the intention of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to:
- examine the potential for a gender-sensitive transitional justice approach, to facilitate former residents of institutions who may wish to provide accounts of their
experiences in public or in private, with a view to formally acknowledging and validating their experiences, and supporting reconciliation for former residents and
the public at large with the events of the past by enhancing public awareness and understanding of a range of past abuses and human rights failures;
- explore the potential for the application of a range of transitional justice mechanisms that would acknowledge and preserve the accounts of the past that have emerged in Tuam and elsewhere, honouring the accounts of victims by preserving memory, undoing stigma and honouring the lives of those who were residents of such homes, thereby guaranteeing non-repetition and affirming the dignity and equality values of the Constitution of Ireland;
- explore, in the context of these transitional justice measures, the scope for a truth commission which would examine broad societal issues of collective responsibility in this area and which would complement but be distinct from the work of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Relate Matters;
- carry out a scoping exercise to consider the calls for an extension to the terms of reference of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters; and
- expedite the publication of the second interim report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters.
- (Minister for Children and Youth Affairs)
Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 94; Níl, 42; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Bailey, Maria.
- Barrett, Seán.
- Brassil, John.
- Breen, Pat.
- Brophy, Colm.
- Browne, James.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Peter.
- Butler, Mary.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Cahill, Jackie.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Canney, Seán.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Casey, Pat.
- Cassells, Shane.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Chambers, Lisa.
- Collins, Michael.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Coveney, Simon.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Creed, Michael.
- Curran, John.
- D'Arcy, Michael.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Doherty, Regina.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Donohoe, Paschal.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Gallagher, Pat The Cope.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Halligan, John.
- Harris, Simon.
- Harty, Michael.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Healy-Rae, Danny.
- Healy-Rae, Michael.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Lowry, Michael.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Micheál.
- MacSharry, Marc.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McGuinness, John.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
- Moran, Kevin Boxer.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Murphy O'Mahony, Margaret.
- Murphy, Eoghan.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Neville, Tom.
- Noonan, Michael.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connell, Kate.
- O'Dea, Willie.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Keeffe, Kevin.
- O'Loughlin, Fiona.
- O'Rourke, Frank.
- Phelan, John Paul.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Ring, Michael.
- Rock, Noel.
- Scanlon, Eamon.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Stanton, David.
- Troy, Robert.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Zappone, Katherine.
Níl
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Collins, Joan.
- Connolly, Catherine.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Clare.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kenny, Gino.
- Martin, Catherine.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Nolan, Carol.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- O'Sullivan, Maureen.
- Penrose, Willie.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Ryan, Eamon.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Wallace, Mick.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Regina Doherty and Tony McLoughlin; Níl, Deputies Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.
Amendment declared carried.
Question put: "That the motion, as amended, be agreed to."
The Dáil divided: Tá, 94; Níl, 43; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Bailey, Maria.
- Barrett, Seán.
- Brassil, John.
- Breen, Pat.
- Browne, James.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Peter.
- Butler, Mary.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Cahill, Jackie.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Canney, Seán.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Casey, Pat.
- Cassells, Shane.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Chambers, Lisa.
- Collins, Michael.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Coveney, Simon.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Creed, Michael.
- Curran, John.
- D'Arcy, Michael.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Doherty, Regina.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Donohoe, Paschal.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Gallagher, Pat The Cope.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Halligan, John.
- Harris, Simon.
- Harty, Michael.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Healy-Rae, Danny.
- Healy-Rae, Michael.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Lowry, Michael.
- MacSharry, Marc.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McGuinness, John.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Micheál.
- Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
- Moran, Kevin Boxer.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Murphy O'Mahony, Margaret.
- Murphy, Eoghan.
- Murphy, Eugene.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Neville, Tom.
- Noonan, Michael.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connell, Kate.
- O'Dea, Willie.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Keeffe, Kevin.
- O'Rourke, Frank.
- Phelan, John Paul.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Ring, Michael.
- Rock, Noel.
- Scanlon, Eamon.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Stanton, David.
- Troy, Robert.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Zappone, Katherine.
Níl
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Collins, Joan.
- Connolly, Catherine.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Clare.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kenny, Gino.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- Martin, Catherine.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Nolan, Carol.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- O'Sullivan, Maureen.
- Penrose, Willie.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Ryan, Eamon.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Wallace, Mick.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Regina Doherty and Tony McLoughlin; Níl, Deputies Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.
Question declared carried.