Kathleen Funchion urges full redress for mother and baby survivors
Kathleen Funchion spoke on redress for women and children affected by mother and baby institutions, urging the State to include all survivors in the scheme. She recounted meetings with survivors, described ongoing intergenerational trauma, and called for accountability from religious institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
Personal accounts
She recalled the first woman who confided in her about time in a mother and baby institution and described meeting many survivors and children born in those institutions. She detailed stories heard over years - a 15-year-old raped and unaware of pregnancy, a woman taken to Besborough and separated from her child, a mother who was lied to about an adoption, and a man who searched decades for his mother.
Continuing harm and exclusions
She argued that the period cannot be confined to the past because intergenerational trauma continues and many survivors still search for family. She gave examples of enduring medical and psychological harm - incontinence, sepsis nearly causing leg loss, trauma affecting relationships - and highlighted how technical eligibility rules can exclude survivors, such as time-in-institution thresholds or particular institutions not being covered.
Demand for comprehensive redress
She called on the State to listen to survivors and use the Oak report as a starting point, asserting that nobody should be excluded from the scheme and that it should cover 100% of survivors. She insisted religious institutions and pharmaceutical companies must be held to account and contribute to redress, saying survivors are tired of apologies without action.
Appeal to the minister and process concerns
She acknowledged that the minister inherited the Commission of Investigation and urged the minister to act for the State to ensure remedies are delivered. She emphasised that people engaged with the process in good faith and should not be left feeling the process was for nothing.
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I am glad to get the opportunity to raise this issue and speak on this situation in relation to the redress. I clearly remember the first woman that confided in me about her time in a mother and baby institution. It was about ten years ago, I was a member of the Clulkenny Borough Council at the time, and this lady actually had come to me for advice on a different matter, but she ended up telling me her story in relation to her time in a mother and baby institution. I still remember her sadness when she told me her story, partly as so few in her life knew about it, and it has always stayed with me to this day, and I always felt very glad that she felt she could share her story with me. Since that time I have had the privilege of meeting and speaking with so many women who were forced into mother and baby institutions. Also, many children who had been born into one of the institutions. Some have found their children or mother, but so many are still looking and still holding out hope, sometimes up to 50 years later that they will be reunited. On many occasions within this chamber and throughout debates on this issue, I have heard people refer to this period as being a dark time in our history. I have to say I have always struggled with this description. While it certainly was a dark time and there is no disputing that, I think that trying to confine it completely to history dismisses the serious intergenerational trauma felt today still by so many. While the state continues to deny justice to both women sent to these state-run institutions and the children born there, it remains, I believe, very much part of our present. In 2007, I was 25 when I had my first son Emmet. I was not married at this time and I do think if it had been 1967 or 1977 or even 1987, would I have found myself in a mother and baby institution? Would Emmet even have been taken away from me? I have to say I find this really difficult to even think about. I remember how incredibly nerve-wracking the whole labour and birth process were. I had great support and encouragement by my side. I had great medical help, in particular from the midwife. I always remember that the midwife stayed past her shift to stay with me. What exactly must this have been like for women? Alone, scared, terrified in fact. I met not only with little or no medical help, but no encouragement or kindness or support or even a reassuring smile. Tonight, as we discuss this, I am thinking of the woman I met who, at 15, was raped. She did not know what pregnancy was or what was happening to her body. I am thinking about the woman who had a partner when she discovered she was pregnant. They planned to get married. But she was taken away late one evening. She was told she was going on a drive to visit a relative. And then she was driven to Besborough. Her son was taken from her when he was born a few months later. I am thinking about the woman who told me she tried desperately to get her baby back from the nuns. Eventually, she was told he had been adopted to a county that was very far away from where she was located in the South East. Thirty years later, when she tracked her child down, it turned out that this story had been total lies. In fact, her son had spent the first eight months of his life less than a mile from her home. I am thinking about the man I met in his 60s who spent decades looking for his mother. Thankfully, he did find her, but he only had two meetings with her before she passed away. When he eventually received his file after she had passed away, it was filled with countless letters begging to know where her son was. I am thinking of the woman who is still looking for her daughter, born 42 years ago in Besborough, and so many others. Imagine, after all of that, to learn that you might be excluded from the scheme because the institution that you were sent to is not included. Or you only spent the first three months of your life there, not the first six months. Imagine you are left with certain medical conditions as a result of your time in one of the institutions, but you were only there for five months and not six months, so you do not qualify for the enhanced medical card. I know a number of women who were actually left incontinent due to the circumstance of their childbirth. Actually, they were left traumatised and unable to form significant relationships going forward because of their embarrassment and shame on that issue. They should not have to come and tell us such personal stories, but they do. But she did not spend six months in an institution, so she will not be entitled to the enhanced medical card. And another lady who spent five months and 20 days, to be exact, in an institution who nearly lost her leg due to sepsis, brought on by the horrific treatment during her labour. Imagine you were boarded out or nursed out, treated like a slave, in many of these situations physically and sexually abused, but you do not qualify for the scheme. There is no price that can be put on any of this, but what the State can do is listen to survivors and their families. Look at the Oak report commissioned by you, Minister, and use that as a starting point. People engaged with this process in good faith, again reliving their stories, which was not easy, and now it seems again it was for nothing. Nobody should be excluded from the scheme. It should cover 100% of survivors. The religious institutions and the pharmaceutical companies also need to be held to account for their role in this. They often profit at the expense of children and women, and they must also pay. Survivors and their families are tired of apologies with no action. I do understand, Minister, that you are not the person responsible for the Commission of Investigation. In fact, you inherited this from predecessors, who I believe were happy to kick it down the road to your door. However, you are now in a position where you can, for the first time on behalf of the State, ensure the right thing is done, that survivors are actually listened to and their wishes respected. And you can ensure that nobody is left out of this scheme. I fully believe that you would have the support of each and every one of the TDs here in the Dáil to do this. And I also think that this 33rd Dáil must finally be the Dáil that ensures that justice is done by every single woman and child that had to pass through those horrific institutions. Gar maagat. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. You
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