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The Dáil passed controversial legislation that would transfer a database of 60,000 records created by a five-year state investigation into the homes of mothers and babies to the children’s and families agency, Tusla.
Records of the Investigation Commission (Maternal and Infant Homes and Related Issues), and another matter, Bill was approved in the Dáil by 78 votes against 67 after a heated and emotional debate.
Two members of the Independent Regional group supported the three government parties.
Five members of the group voted against the bill, as did all the other opposition parties and groups, including Sinn Féin, Labor, Social Democrats, Solidarity-People before Profits, Rural Independents and the Group Independently voted against the legislation.
The bill provides for the transfer of the housing inquiry commission’s database to Tulsa, which was opposed by advocates for housing survivors due to concerns about access.
However, the remaining records will be sealed for the next 30 years.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly said that “surely, seven years after the very welcome apology from then-taoiseach Enda Kenny, the Minister [for Children] it should tell the House how it is going to get around the 30-year requirement. “
She said: “I have no words to describe what the state did to mothers and children. Then he piled abuse upon abuse after that ”and now he had produced legislation that is not fit for purpose.
The Government refused to accept any amendment from the Opposition, but an amendment tabled by the Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, means that the legislation will return to the Seanad for consideration.
Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns said it was “a shame that, after pleas from survivors of institutional abuse, the Government will not even consider one of the more than 60 Opposition amendments.”
He said the commission, which is expected to deliver a 4,000-page report by the end of October, was formed “after the discovery of 800 dead children and babies in a misused septic tank.”
Ms Cairns said the government had passed the bill “without proper pre-legislative scrutiny and without the participation of survivors” and that it was “disgusting” that no amendments were accepted.
Labor TD Seán Sherlock said the Minister and the Government were simply not listening to the reasonable concerns of the Opposition any longer to debate the bill.
Independent TD Joan Collins said that “the Minister is ignoring the wishes of the people who have survived these institutions and their families and relatives. We are dealing with one of the main historical crimes of the 20th century that happened in this country ”.
O’Gorman said: “I am aware of the real starkness of the issues we are discussing for survivors of maternal and child homes. I am also aware that this debate, especially over the past two weeks, has exacerbated that rawness. That doesn’t sit well with me. “
He said that, on the advice of the Attorney General, he would publish an interim report on the handling of records.
O’Gorman insisted that the bill did not seal the archive of mothers and babies homes. “That statement has been repeated countless times in this House. It is incorrect. This bill seeks to protect a database and ensure that it is not sealed in that file, “he said.
But he added that “the law on file sealing comes from the original Investigative Commissions Act of 2004. When the Oireachtas established the commission on maternal and child homes in 2015, it was based on the 2004 law and the consequence was the application of the 30-year archive rule.
“Consequently, when the maternal and child homes commission presents its final report and is dissolved by law, its file will be transferred to my department and will be sealed for 30 years under the legislation.”
O’Gorman said he introduced the legislation “because it will take the database out of the file and give it to Tusla. That database is immediately available for future use, which will be incredibly beneficial. “
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