Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 30 Nov 2021

Goeir maith agat, lais goeir loch. Minister, you're very welcome to the House. Minister, I want to thank you for the sensitivity that you have, the sensitive approach you've taken to dealing with this specific issue. The society we grew up in, the society I grew up in, took young women who became pregnant and they didn't become pregnant on their own, and they sent them off to institutions. The society I live in today likes to blame those institutions for the way those women were treated. The first time RTE did a documentary on Bessborough House, I got a phone call from a woman I knew as a young girl in Galway, who, like many young girls in Galway, went away for a holiday. And of course, everybody knew what the holiday was and she rang me to tell me how upset she had been about the documentary the night before and I thought, instead of being with a family in Cork, you were in Bessborough. And I thought, how horrible it must have been for you. And she said, no, no, she said, step back for a moment, she said. Actually, she said, I was treated very well there. Yes, she said some people were treated terribly. I was treated very well. She said, she said, I had my baby and the only regret I ever had was that I had to give my baby up for adoption. She was there for a number of months. She said that some people were very kind to her and some people were very cruel. And I think we must take this on board. This is somebody who was actually there. And I think we must understand that not everybody was brutal that worked in these places and that everybody was mistreated or ill-treated, those who were sent there. We must look back into ourselves and ask ourselves, what sort of society were we that we allowed this to happen? And it is right and proper that the state steps forward and takes full responsibility for those who suffered. And the suffering I'm talking about, yes, there may have been physical and mental abuse in these institutions, but the greatest suffering of all they have had to live with all their lives, and that is the loss of the child that they had. And we have heard stories of people who actually got married afterwards and the child they had had been put out for adoption and the couple lost. So not only did they lose their mother and father, they lost their family as well. And that's something we have to take on board. But as we progress through this, there are mothers in Ireland today who are petrified. They have had a secret all of their lives, many of them now elderly. And that secret they have held away from everybody, including their spouse, including their children, including their siblings. Nobody ever knew they were pregnant. Nobody ever knew they gave birth. And those women today are faced and confronted with the rights of the children they delivered. And that's something that I know that you have worked very hard to try and reconcile the issues there. Do remember one thing, Minister. The fathers who fathered those children have walked away scot-free. Nobody will ever know who they were. Many of them took up important roles in society. Many of them went on to do great things. But the one thing they did which is unforgivable is they left the girl they impregnated and left her on her own. And the society we live in today isn't much kinder to a single mother than it was then. The only difference now is we don't chuck them into institutions and we don't take their children off them. And we have a huge amount to learn with respect to the treatment of mothers and with respect to the treatment of fathers who desert those mothers. No woman should be left to bring up a child on her own. These fathers who abandoned their girlfriends and sent them off to places, institutions around the country. Not one of them will ever be called to account for their actions. And for the most part, nobody will know who they were or anybody. It is really, really sad that this has become a gender issue and that the people who will have to pay the price and confront the demons of the past are the women on their own. You did point out, Minister, a lot of these women are now elderly and as such they need to be able to be compensated quickly and with as little pain as possible. For the pain of losing your child, no compensation will pay for that. So all we're trying to do is to show that we cared in some small way. Now, Minister, there's a group of women that are not covered here, at least as far as I know they're not covered. These were the women who were sent to families, not to institutions. But they suffered the same pain and the same suffering. They lost their child and they won't see that child again. And I understand, Cire, look, you want me to sit down. One last point. We have put a demarcation line on the six months for babies. I really think we need to go back and revisit that. If you were born into an institution, your future was already set in train and you had no choice. So I think the six months needs to be waived completely. Thank you, Cire, look for your forgiveness. Thank you, Senator Cromwell. I'd now like to.