Kathleen Funchion urges full access to Commission archive

Thanks, Chair. I just want the opportunity to speak again because I am conscious of the fact that we probably only have about an hour and a half left in this debate. Am I correct on that? Roughly? Yeah, and so we are not even going to reach most of our amendments. So not only are we rushing all of this legislation, we are also rushing this crucial part and we won't get the opportunity to even put forward our arguments as to why we put our amendments forward. I just think that really this whole thing is a shambles, more and more so, unfortunately, I think that as the days progress. I just want to put these on record because it gives some of the rationale for some of the amendments we put forward, that there is no principled reason why the Oireachtas should not legislate to ensure that the Minister responds to personal data access requests once he receives the archive. Neither the Commission nor the Minister has explained why, as a matter of principle, individuals affected by torture or other cruel treatment, forced family separation, enforced disappearance, where the fate or whereabouts of a family member who died while detained or abducted remain unknown, and medical experimentation should not have full access to their personal data, including the transcript of their own evidence to the Commissioner. I would like to get an answer, if possible, the fact that they did not have any access to the Commission's archive for the duration of the investigation is a major breach of their basic rights under the European Convention on Human Rights to be properly involved in any inquiry into the abuse they suffered. They should have been able to receive a copy of all of their deceased relatives' personal data and their transcript of evidence, and they should have been invited to comment on the evidence being received from the State and non-State institutions responsible for the treatment of mothers and their children. It is not acceptable now to compound that human rights abuse by denying access to personal data in the Minister's possession for the next 30 years. The only justification which the Minister has offered is that the 2004 Act envisages a Commission's archive being sealed for 30 years upon deposit with the Minister. There is no obligation on the Minister to seal the records under this Act. In fact, rather than be bound to secrecy, the Oireachtas could legislate to unseal records and evidence gathered by the Commission. We really want to reiterate, Minister, that this legislation does need to be scrapped. And again, and I don't care if I sound like a broken record, I appeal to you in relation to the time, because more and more as this goes on, we're crammed into time now trying to explain and rush through why we're putting forward amendments. We should at least have the time to debate those properly. So I really feel we need to call a halt to this, put the brakes on and give it the proper time it deserves, and then also take that opportunity to make sure the records are not sealed and to make sure that the records are not passed over to Tusla, and to engage with consultation with the survivors, because that goes to the very heart of all this. But it's just, it's extremely frustrating now that we're rushed with all of this. And the other point I want to make is in relation to the amendment that we had put forward about the indexing. So in order to engage in debate and consultation over further unsealing of the Commission's archive, it's absolutely necessary to know what it contains. The archive that is deposited with the minister is likely to include witness testimony, state records, many of which should be in the National Archives, but the originals are not because of the National Archives chronic underfunding, institutional records, financial records, correspondence, bishops and diocesan records. So quite possibly in the hundreds of thousands, if not more. And how can the government justify continued sealing of the archive, without explaining what is in it and why exactly it needs to be sealed. That's what I'll say for now, thanks.