Baby home survivor brands Taoiseach and Tánaiste 'sickening double act'

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have been dubbed a “sickening double act” over their respective statements about the mother and baby homes scandal.

The Chair of the Coalition of Mother And Baby home Survivors (CMABS) has attacked them for not committing outright to a referendum on access over adoption records.

Paul Redmond also described what both men had to say as little more than “political waffle”.

And he dismissed the Commission’s report as being both “deeply flawed” and a “contradictory mess”, and questioned whether there was any point in survivors giving any of their testimonies in the first place.

For his part, the Taoiseach has stated the Mother and Baby Homes Commission report was one “all of Irish society” needed to address.

And he said what happened was something “we did to ourselves”, and “all of society was complicit”.

"It appears both Taoiseach Martin and Tánaiste Varadkar have been reading the Catholic church's bumper book of excuses," Mr Redmond said.

“Both tried desperately to deflect the blame from the State and their respective political parties.

“Apparently it was 'society's fault'.

"As another TD noted" when everyone is to blame, no one is to blame ".

Protesters hang babys ’shoes outside Aran and Uachterain to highlight their opposition to the sealing of records into the Tuam mother and baby home scandal.

Protesters hang babys ’shoes outside Aran and Uachterain to highlight their opposition to the sealing of records into the Tuam mother and baby home scandal.

And he added: “We listened to both Taoiseach Martin and Tánaiste Varadkar apologize in the Dáil against a backdrop of empty seats.

"It seems the vast majority of our so-called public representatives didn't feel that it was worthy enough to attend the House."

Mr Redmond, who was born in the Castlepollard Mother and Baby Home in Co Westmeath in 1964, described the Commission Report itself as "deeply flawed".

"It could never have been any other way since its narrow terms of reference effectively excluded important sections of our wider community," he said.

“Up to 15,000 people in Ireland and abroad were illegally adopted during the timeframe under investigation and they were excluded.

“Furthermore the rest of the county homes were ignored by this commission - more than two dozen escaped investigations.

“Babies died by the thousands in these hellholes directly as a result of the early state's policy of semi-official discrimination against single mothers and their babies.

“Where is their truth and justice?”

The taxpayers of Ireland paid over € 20m for this contradictory mess

And he added: “It laughingly says‘ there is no evidence women were forced to enter mother and baby homes by the church or state authorities ’then says‘ most women had no alternative ”.

“The taxpayers of Ireland paid over € 20m for this contradictory mess.

“Many of the statements in the report mention certain issues but then claim they can neither be proved nor disproved.

“Is the commission saying they do not accept the testimonies of the 500-plus survivors who testified to the Inquiry?

“It certainly looks like it.

“What was the point in our testifying if our word was to be doubted?

"Our testimonies ARE the proof."

He said talk of exhuming bodies in Tuam or other former homes was premature, and there should instead be direct and immediate action be taken for the “living”.

"Neither of the sickening double act in the Dáil bothered to talk about real and immediate action for living survivors," he said.

“This simple message has clearly escaped the double act.

“And they of course did not commit to the second recommendation of the Inquiry - that a referendum be held (on open access to) sealed adoption records.

“But not to worry,‘ it will be examined ’, they proclaimed.

"Survivors have heard enough political waffle to last a lifetime, we need action while some of us are alive." He also attacked the government’s restorative recognition scheme which will provide enhanced medical card provision for all former residents of Mother and Baby Homes and County Homes.

But it only applies to residents who were in the homes for “for a period of more than six months”.

He said: “The State is already trying to exclude as many survivors as possible from redress by arbitrarily setting a deadline of a" six-month "stay.

“The sad fact is that losing a baby to forced adoption is a traumatic event in a mother's life.

It causes a form of post-traumatic stress disorder and it makes zero difference how soon after birth this trauma is inflicted.

"The horror remains, so does the depression, anxiety, nightmares, flashbacks, and secondary infertility."

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