Government must put money where its mouth is to cleanse 'stains on our State'

“Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes, industrial schools, illegal adoptions, and clerical child abuse are stains on our State, our society, and also the Catholic Church. Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors,” said Leo Varadkar.

The Taoiseach has received wide acclaim for his speech in Dublin Castle for the visit of the Pope.

He is right; issues such as the Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes, industrial schools, illegal adoptions, and clerical child abuse are “stains on our State” as well as on the Catholic Church.

The Taoiseach went on to urge the Pope to “use your office and influence” to ensure justice and truth is delivered to these people.

However, Mr Varadkar also needs to use his own office and influence in these matters. We have become used to silence from the Church. It is to the State we look to offer justice and truth.

A quick glance through the State’s attitude to these matters reveals a very deliberate way of handling things: Deny knowledge, delay as long as possible, eventually throw money at the issue.

Much has been made of Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone’s letter to the Pope on the issue of mother and baby homes. It’s clear the State is trying to push the Vatican into taking some financial responsibility for whatever is done with the Tuam site.

However, she said mother and baby homes came to public attention in 2014 after Catherine Corless’ research into infant deaths at Tuam made headlines around the world. However, we know the State knew long before then.

Two separate reports on Tuam and Bessborough were prepared by the HSE in 2012, which not only explicitly reference infant mortality rates but also expressed serious concerns about the possible trafficking of children from the institutions. They also mention that these issues needed to be investigated as a matter of urgency. The Bessborough report was seen by two government departments — the Department of Health and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Nothing was done.

Take the Magdalene laundries. Just this month, the Government responded to the UN Committee Against Torture to say it was satisfied that no State inquiry into the Magdalene laundries is warranted. The McAleese report will do just fine.

The Government supports the view that there is “no factual evidence to support allegations of systematictorture or ill-treatment of a criminal nature in these institutions”.

This conclusion was based on the findings of a questionnaire issued by the McAleese committee to 118 women.

However, the Justice For Magdalenes group also submitted testimony on this matter — 800 pages of it — to the

McAleese committee. This testimony, from more than 20 women, is packed with accounts of serious and prolonged physical abuse.

Not a single line of these testimonies appears in the McAleese report.

Indeed, despite the report confirming what was already a well-known fact — that the State was involved in all

aspects of the Magdalene laundries — and despite the then taoiseach, Enda Kenny, admitting the same and apologising to the women, the Government is now saying the report made “no finding” in relation to State liability with regard to Magdalene laundries.

The redress scheme has also been heavily criticised. This newspaper pointed out as far back as 2015 how women who worked in training centres attached to laundries had been excluded from the Magdalene redress scheme.

It took three years for the Government to admit that these women were entitled to redress. It took the scathing findings of the Ombudsman following a year-long investigation to force action.

A total of seven women, accepted to the redress scheme in 2013, have died without receiving a single penny for the work done in Magdalene laundries. There are still issues over the healthcare packages that women are entitled to under the scheme.

In May, Ms Zappone revealed a new scandal — that of illegal adoptions. Except that scandal wasn’t so new either. She revealed that Tusla had discovered 126 cases in which births were illegally registered between 1946 and 1969 in the records of St Patrick’s Guild. The records transferred to the agency in 2016.

The regulator body for adoption, the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI), has warned the Department of Children on numerous occasions about this issue and St Patrick’s Guild on numerous occasions since 2011. In June 2013, an AAI delegation told the department again of there being “at least 120 [confirmed] cases” of illegal registrations found as the result of a 2010 audit it carried out.

It specifically named St Patrick’s Guild in Dublin as being “aware of several hundred illegal registrations”, stating its belief that this could well be the tip of the iceberg and that there “may be thousands” more.

The department has known about the scale of this issue for years and had chosen to do nothing. In fact, it repeatedly said there was nothing to see on the records and said that an audit would “yield little useful information” and was “of very limited benefit”.

It is now carrying out such an audit — a “scoping exercise” — but won’t say how many records are being examined and what methodology is being used.

The Taoiseach is right: The Vatican needs to ensure justice and truth is delivered to those it abused.

However, the State also needs to step up to the plate.