'Circling of wagons' adds to trauma of mother and baby home survivors, opposition says

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald TD.

The opposition says "the buck stops with the state" regarding the mother and baby homes scandal.

In response to the Taoiseach's apology to survivors, in which he noted that all of society was to blame, many of Micheál Martin's political rivals said it was a "cop-out".

Some pointed out that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders were in power during the time of the mother and baby homes operations and did nothing to raise any concern about the huge number of deaths in the institutions.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said survivors' "hopes were dashed" by the report.

"This circling of the wagons only adds to their trauma and exacerbates the failures of the State," she said.

"The purpose and the power of testimony is that it is given to be believed, but many survivors feel that they weren't heard, and they were not believed, even though we know that they were coerced, that they were forced to give up their children.

"They know that they were physically and mentally abused. They know that the State and churches are responsible for the violation of their most basic human rights.

It is plainly untrue to suggest that the whole of Irish society is responsible, that itself is a distortion of history. 

"The truth is that these crimes were perpetrated by a reactionary Catholic Church, and a confessional State, those in power outsourced their responsibility to the religious orders and this was done by the powerful to those who were vulnerable.

"To say we did this to ourselves is deeply insulting to victims and survivors, and it is frankly a cop-out."

Jennifer Whitmore from the Social Democrats said there was "shock" by the Taoiseach's response to the report. 

"You say the regime described in the report 'wasn't imposed on us by any foreign power. We did this to ourselves as a society'.

"This is a sentiment and a theme that unfortunately runs through the Commission report itself," she said.

"At each turn, the report and many of your comments failed to fully acknowledge that the fundamental responsibility of protection of its citizens lies with the State and that the culture of a society is moulded and shaped by the most powerful institutions in the state.

"Namely, our State and Church, a State and Church which operated hand in glove to implement a State policy of shame, blame and misogyny, that facilitated and oversaw the horrific treatment of women and children in those homes."

There can be absolutely no doubt, the State's policy was one of shame.

Labour leader Alan Kelly said that "all of the political entities that served in governments that allowed this to happen" should apologise.

"Politically, we're all at fault," Mr Kelly said.

"The institutions, the Catholic Church, has an awful lot to answer for and we must really look at and continue to look at our relationship between the State and religious institutions.

"We need to ensure this time around, that those religious institutions make their contribution in relation to the redress for all the families, and women affected.

"If they do not make their contribution we will pass legislation to ensure that we can take their assets to ensure that they make that contribution.

"We cannot go to what happened in this country before in relation to them, not making their contribution."

Mattie McGrath noted that the leaking of the report to a Sunday newspaper was "deeply shocking" and called for the Taoiseach to "root out" the leak.