Dáil hearing testimonies from survivors now in the Dáil. A visibly upset Mairead Farrell has asked Minister Roderic O'Gorman to rethink the legislation. Maurice Quinlivan asks where the children of the 1,024 birth certificates at Sean Ross are. #iestaff

. @DuncanSmithTD says as a legislator the responsibility is on the Dáil to deal with the Mother and Baby Homes legislation with more sensitivity than anything else they've ever done. #iestaff

"This anger is predicated on the fact that you have not dissuaded us that these records won't be sealed for 30 years," Smith adds. #iestaff

Reading testimony from survivor Anne: "As far as I know I was born in Dublin to unwed mother," details 68 year fight looking for basic information on her parents.
"This is just one of many stories, that have so much horror in them. There are thousands more out there." #iestaff

. @seansherlocktd says he feels government TDs are torn on this but will vote Tá anyway, says he understands the whip but it feels it is too sensitive and important. The bill needs further interrogation. #iestaff

SS: "I would've thought a mechanism could be found to give further consideration to this, such as the Minister asking for more time to deliberate and an extension, I'm sure something could be done to do that. For the people outside looking to us, being traumatised again" #iestaff

SS: "It's insulting to people who have been traumatised to bring legislation in this way and it should be non-partisan." #iestaff

Pat Buckley now visibly upset talking about his friend who had her child "ripped from her chest". "We must be the only government who does this. This was a disgusting thing to do to humans, if it was an animal you'd be punished." #iestaff

PB: All the government spokespeople here are men. Where are the women? I'm not a woman, I don't know what it's like to lose a child. Do not condemn people who lived in hell here to let them die in hell too. Let's do it right. This is the most vile thing you could do. #iestaff

Jennifer Whitmore up now: "Listen to their voices and make sure we're hearing them and don't disenfranchise them. You're asking women to trust you where the state has repeatedly failed them, it's a bridge too far. We need to build trust, and it's not on survivors." #iestaff

JW: "Saying the records won't be sealed is a cop-out. This bill could be used for good, there are valuable and feasible amendments being proposed. We can't forget the stories, we use technical terminology, we can't lose sight of what it means for families." #iestaff

.@1GaryGannon: "Saying Ireland is different now is a gross misunderstanding, the Ireland of 1920 carried on until 1996. We never talk about what Irish independence meant for the average person, the injustice inflicted on them. You have 4000 pages that give light to that." #iestaff

GG: "This is a social and feminist history. Is there information on physical abuse and forced adoption, medical experimentation, collusion with the state? This will be locked away. Do you not see a continuum that leads to direct provision? " #iestaff

GG: "If we fully understand that past then the process of keeping women and children in family hubs at a profit of others would be seen as unconscionable." #iestaff

GG: "The absence of civil engagement or with survivors, people who dedicated their lives to truth, offered to meet with you, they haven't been dealt with. This will be guillotined tonight under the guise of a pandemic. I expected better than that." #iestaff

GG: "The state has no legitimacy to ask the survivors for trust." #iestaff

Holly Cairns: "This Commission was set up after over 700 babies in Tuam in a septic tank. I couldn't think of anything worse, yet here we are; Instead of talking about justice we can give to survivors, we're denying them access to their own information. " #iestaff

HC: "The state treats this as a scandal to be contained. The bare minimum the state can do is to consider what impact legislation will have on survivors. We know it compounds trauma for so many. That they deserve more is an understatement." #iestaff

HC: "You are morally obliged to listen to survivors, we don't want this to be a partisan issue. At this point is the legislation is pushed through is whose interest are you protecting? Because it isn't survivors." #iestaff

A Fianna Fáil senator has told her party colleagues there is a "campaign of vested interests trying to make a commodity" from the Mother and Baby Home Commission. #iestaff https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40068842.html

Fergus O'Dowd: "Nothing will be hidden in this report. If this legislation is not passed the Commission has to redact all that they have. We should find a way forward to protect the data." #iestaff

FoD: "No one has a monopoly on caring, but it is in context of the legislation we established, I don't think it's fair that some people said they didn't trust the minister. (heckling as that's not technically what was said) We want the truth to come out." #iestaff

FoD: "We don't want to hide the truth. Ireland hasn't changed enough. We want data protected and saved, I will vote for that. We need to make sure other parties buy into amendments that meet everybody's needs." #iestaff

Reada Cronin: Talks about the Examiner investigation of social welfare inspectors and how they treat poor women. "We have had enough darkness in this state and it is time to give these people light." #iestaff

Brid Smith: In her party, Richard Boyd Barrett was born in a M&B home, another PBP Wexford councillor was too. Gino O'Boyle in Sligo, his father had no access to his medical history because he was born in Nazareth House. #iestaff

BS: "We should not accept destruction as a fact, but make an amendment to make it possible that the archive endures. Nowhere in law does it mention that a group of civil servants would burn or shred it, where in law does it say that?" #iestaff

BS: "We are dealing with people who have seen a different side of this state that you have seen, a state who washed it's hands on the safety of children, abuse, rape and torture of vulnerable women." #iestaff

Minister O'Gorman has just left the chamber as Mick Barry began talking about women who were denied painkillers in these homes "for their sins". #iestaff