[ad_1]
Yesterday POWERFUL TESTIMONIES of those who lived in maternal and child homes were read in Dáil’s registry.
The TDs last night debated the controversial plans to seal records of the Commission of Inquiry of the Maternal and Child Home for 30 years.
Kathleen Funchion, Sinn Féin spokesperson for children, said that “innocent women were subjected to cruel practices” in institutions, “imprisoned and forced to give birth in the most dire conditions, often without medical support or even relief. basic pain “.
“One survivor vividly recalled that there was no doctor present when she gave birth, only nuns, and there was no formal medical care or any kind of pain relief.
“Another woman re-told the story of her birth and said that when her mother cried out in pain during childbirth, one of these nuns told her that she shouldn’t be surprised because my mother was paying for her sins.”
Funchion said that part of her “cannot believe that in 2020 we are here discussing the rights and errors of what should happen to the records and whether the records should be sealed.”
Watch Kathleen Funchion’s Powerful Speech on Proposed Legislation on Mother and Baby Homes @ kathleensf1
The minister must listen to the survivors. Your records should not be sealed.
The survivors deserve better. pic.twitter.com/hrtMWhGVCx
– Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) October 21, 2020
Funchion and other TDs noted how some survivors deliberately received inaccurate or misleading information about their past. Many people were incorrectly told that their mothers had died when this was not the case.
“Surviving children tell story after story of crashing into brick walls, and many tragically miss the opportunity to be reunited with their mothers before they die,” said Funchion.
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway Walsh shared similar stories and was visibly angry as he made his way to the Dáil.
In telling the story of a woman reuniting with her mother shortly before she died, Conway Walsh said: “I walked into the room, I kissed her on the forehead and told her who I was.
And she replied ‘I knew that one day you would find me’. My mother passed away less than a month later.
“That woman probably held out until her son found her,” Funchion noted.
Conway Walsh told Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman: “We have an opportunity here to do the right thing. We cannot tell all these women and all these families that they are wrong ”for opposing the legislation.
Please, please, I beg of you. Don’t go ahead with this legislation. “
Review of the process
TDs and senators have raised serious concerns in debates over the proposed legislation in the past two weeks, saying it is being rushed without proper scrutiny.
Survivors, academics and legal experts have also raised concerns about plans to seal records for 30 years.
Under the Investigative Commissions Act of 2004, once you submit your final report, which is due to happen by the end of this month, the commission will be dissolved and, prior to dissolution, you will need to deposit all records with the minister for sealing. . a period of 30 years.
The proposed legislation will see the transfer of certain records from O’Gorman to Tusla, the Agency for Children and Families.
Speaking at the Dáil last night, O’Gorman said that “while much of the debate has combined the genuine goals of this bill with the pre-existing legal requirements in place regarding the sealing of commission records for 30 years, it is impossible to ignore the volume of correspondence I have received expressing very legitimate and serious concerns that some important commission records – personal validation information essential to survivors – would be out of reach for 30 years. “
O’Gorman noted that people’s concerns are “centered on how the archive of 30 years of records, as required by the commission of inquiry into the homes of mothers and babies, affects the legitimate expectations of survivors and family members to access. to important personal information related to the circumstances. ” of his time in these institutions ”.
This claim has been challenged by legal experts, with Project Clann’s Dra. Maeve O’Rourke stated: “Neither the Commission nor the Government is authorized under the GDPR to affix a blanket seal to the entire file it contains.”
O’Gorman said last night that it is clear that “a reexamination of the current approach is needed on how access to commission files is provided for certain validating personal information of survivors.”
“In doing so, I believe that there is an obligation to survivors and their families that goes beyond purely legal issues.”
To begin this process, O’Gorman committed to two actions.
No news is bad news
Support the magazine
your contributions help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you
Support us now
“First, I have requested – this has been agreed – a detailed engagement with the Attorney General’s Office on the issue of access to personal data in the commission’s files, which is of vital importance to so many former residents.
“Second, I intend to ask the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration to lead this reexamination in a format that allows survivors and their representatives, expert legal opinion, and other prominent scholars to fully explore the main principles on which the debate on access to personal information in the commission’s files is based and to formulate a series of recommendations to resolve the very real difficulties that the approval of this legislation has revealed.
“As part of this, I promise to work closely with the committee to find a way forward.”
The commission was established in 2015 to investigate the treatment of women and children in 14 maternal and child homes and four county homes between 1922 and 1998.
It was created after claims that up to 800 babies were buried in an unnamed mass grave in an old Bon Secours home in Tuam, Co Galway.
Excavations conducted between November 2016 and February 2017 found a significant amount of human remains, ranging in age from 35 fetal weeks to two to three years, buried in a vault at the site.
The commission is due to submit its final report to O’Gorman by October 30, after previous delays. His work has cost to date about 14 million euros.
[ad_2]