Mattie McGrath condemns 'draconian' approach to legacy survivors bill
Mattie McGrath spoke in the Dáil on 22 October 2020, sharply criticising the government's handling of legislation relating to survivors of institutional abuse and the refusal to accept amendments. He argued the measures were secretive and hurt survivors who want recognition, not token amenities.
Central criticism of legislation
McGrath described the bill debated that day as draconian, tyrannical and shocking, expressing horror that the minister and the government had "set their face against dealing with this issue in any shape, make or form." He said the government refused to accept any amendments and treated the issue with disdain.
Survivors' demands and recognition
He reiterated that many survivors contacted deputies to demand openness, honesty and transparency. McGrath said survivors did not want amenities but recognition - their names published and their suffering acknowledged - and that many had engaged with a forum convened by the minister in the past.
Parliamentary process concerns
McGrath criticised the speed and lack of pre-legal scrutiny for what he called rush emergency legislation, warning that guillotining debate and refusing amendments undermined proper legislative scrutiny. He referred to Deputy Cairns' unanswered questions and took the minister's silence as refusal to accept changes.
Majority politics and handling by parties
He accused members of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens and regional independents of supporting the government majority and allowing the bill to be steamrolled. McGrath warned that invoking the business committee or blaming it did not excuse the government for how the bill was being handled.
Historical and moral consequences
McGrath said burying documents or removing records would be like placing a poisoned time capsule, and he predicted history would judge the government harshly. He warned the approach would prolong survivors' grief and labelled the treatment of victims a national shame in the middle of a pandemic.
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Thank you, I wish to again express my sincere horror really that the Minister and the Government have set their face against dealing with this issue in any shape, make or form and they try to convince themselves because they need to convince themselves that they're doing something for the good of the survivors and it takes some convincing in that but if they can convince themselves of that they can convince themselves of anything we've all received thousands of impassioned impassioned pleas from victims and survivors all over the country and beyond and I'm sure the Minister has received them also and all the TDs in Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens and of course the regional independents who were backing this government to Tickenten no matter what it is, the vast majority of them, all about one or two I think, so it's a sad day in our country that you know we have talked about all the issues of the past and we had the children of the and we had the marriage referendum and we had the marriage referendum and we had the marriage referendum and the repeal and we had the marriage referendum and we had the marriage referendum and the repeal and we had supposed to be such a place now of openness and transparency and honesty and New Ireland, some New Ireland, right, when you look at this parliament today and see the legislation we were debating all morning, it's draconian, it's tyrannical, it's shocking and then we see this legacy issue of horror and hurt and indeed and disdainful treatment of our own citizens. Our own citizens, we've moved on from all that now we're supposed to be you know the modern pluralist country but this is shocking to think that they would now reject outright all the amendments, set their faces and we can't get an answer to the Deputy Cairns, ask for an answer and she couldn't get it, we take it by silence of the Minister that he's not accepting any amendments and to think that we're going to remove these documents now and indeed in 30 years forward. We had a great time in the millennium, which was 20 years ago now, when many schools and many communities put capsules into the ground and we were all delighted and wondering who would be digging them up in 100 years time and what they'd think of us then but this capsule is going into the ground, being buried somewhere and God knows it's a murky one, it's a dirty one, it's not a joyous one anyway, it won't be and history won't be kind to this government and to Minister of Government and his government. I could call them, I could call them a cabal, no but they have a majority, they are elected and they've come together, cobbled the government together with the aid of independence but I can't believe it and the people looking in can't believe it and all right thinking people, young and old, from the age of reason, would think this is an abhorrence in this day in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. So I'm just a disbelief and we know Minister Sapone, a former minister did convene a forum or kind of a place that some survivors are having and a good few came out, I understand, and engaged with them and kind of listening process and they made it quite clear, as many have to me personally and all our deputies I'm sure, that they don't want an amenity, they want their names to be out there, they want to be recognised as as human beings, as people who have suffered, who have been literally lives almost destroyed and have fought back from that and come back from that and want to move on with their lives and they want to have their records, you know, this idea that you're protecting, we're protecting, this is emergency legislation or rush legislation, which is always bad legislation by the way, no pre-legal scrutiny, this government, I say, we're only a short time in being. I think, I think, going back to the one from 11 to 16, I think this will pass them out for lack of legislation, scrutiny of legislation, guillotines by another name, and the latest trick in the book is to blame the business committee for everything. Now, you chair the business committee, you're a fine job on it, it happened here again today, deputy, you don't need to blame the business committee for the way we're dealing with the bill, you know, the facts are that the government are just a name using the business committee, we object but we're just steamrolled because they have a majority. And it's so sad and will be sad and will be a blight on this house and the convention center but in the Oireachtas to do this to these cohort of people who have suffered enough, who've suffered for long, long, long time and what went on and our monthly past and now we're trying to suppress it again. So, these people, all they want is openness, honesty and transparency and to be allowed to go on with their life but this piece of legislation and an outright refusal to accept any amendment, it's like, you know what I mean, countries that we read about in Eastern Europe in the past days that would set their face against any kind of reform, any kind of common decency, any kind of dealing with the opposition and kind of trying to embrace them. And we will look for together to be in all this together and I'm always saying they're not the current of the Kayla but in this case the government know best and they know everything and where there's ministers, inside in these shelves when they become ministers, the body's trying to break out of the straight jacket they're in and whether they're not allowed by senior civil servants and I don't want to demonise any senior civil servants but the system seems to be, has to be protected above all else. Yes, this sacred system, this sacred system can't be questioned, can't be gone against, we must toe the party line but this is going to end in tatters, tatters but the path to tatters and I'll finish now, Gran Krola, is going to end in grief and more prolonged grief for the survivors, I hate calling them victims but there were in many cases, for their families and for their children and grandchildren and generations to come and it's an appalling vista. Go on, go. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it! Hmm- Go on for it! Go on for it. Go on for it. Find it all the great i most It's... Go on! Press this. On of left the했 Musym platform, it catalyst for the director of D Uzbek Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Go on for it. Well, go. Go on for it… Go on for it.
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