Taoiseach’s apology says actions on report will speak louder than words – Irish Examiner

Taoiseach Michel Martin has apologised on behalf of the State to the survivors and victims of mother and baby homes.

Speaking in the Dil the day after the publication of the report of the Commission of Investigation on Mother and Baby Homes, Mr Martin said it was "the duty of a republic to be willing to hold itself to account" and face hard truths.

He said the report "presents us with profound questions" and that Ireland had "embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters".

Mr Martin paid particular tribute to historian Catherine Corless, whose work at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home led to the commission's establishment, who he said "played a critical part" in the report's publication.

The Taoiseach said the report had laid bare the "significant failures of the State, the Churches and of society"

"Women were admitted to mother and baby homes and county homes because no supports were forthcoming from any other quarter. They were forced to leave home, and seek a place where they could stay without having to pay. Many were destitute.

In the personal testimonies of how many women ended up in these institutions, the priest, the doctor and the nun loom large. The sense of oppression, even at this distance, is overwhelming.

"Women, terrified by the consequences of their pregnancy becoming known to their family and neighbours entered mother and baby homes to protect their secret.

"While women may not have been strictly legally forced to enter these homes, the fact is that most had no alternative, especially those who did not have the support of their family or independent financial means."

He went on to issue a full apology to the survivors, saying they were failed by those around them and that each was blameless.

"On behalf of the Government, the State and its citizens, I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or a county home.

"As the commission says plainly, they should not have been there.

"I apologise for the shame and stigma which they were subjected to and which, for some, remains a burden to this day.

"In apologising, I want to emphasise that each of you were in an institution because of the wrongs of others. Each of you is blameless, each of you did nothing wrong and has nothing to be ashamed of.

"Each of you deserved so much better."

An Taoiseach @MichealMartinTD's statement on the Report of Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

The full statement can be viewed here: https://t.co/RUOtnnALOs pic.twitter.com/eOHCUWGpe8

However, the Taoiseach said that an apology alone was "not enough".

"We, collectively in this House, will be judged by our actions. Actions always speak louder than words.

The Government accepts and will respond to all of the recommendations made by the commission, and this response will centre on four pillars of recognition, remembrance, records and restorative recognition.

"Recognition begins with this apology and will be followed by commitments to national and local memorialisation and commemoration.

"The views and wishes of former residents will be paramount and all commemoration will be led by them."

The Taoiseach said the "shame" around the institutions belonged to the State and not the women and said the Government "is determined to act on all the recommendations of the report and to deliver the legislative change necessary to at least start to heal the wounds that endure".

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Taoiseach's apology says actions on report will speak louder than words - Irish Examiner